To know that no one before you has seen an organ you are examining, to trace relationships that have occurred to no one before, to immerse yourself in the wondrous crystalline world of the microscope, where silence reigns, circumscribed by its own horizon, a blindingly white arena — all this is so enticing that I cannot describe it.


Letter to his sister Elena Sikorski (1945); in Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings (2000) Edited and annotated by Brian Boyd and Robert Michael Pyle, p. 387.

Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

To know that no one before you has seen an organ you are examining, to trace relationships that have occurred to no one before, to immerse yourself...

To know that no one before you has seen an organ you are examining, to trace relationships that have occurred to no one before, to immerse yourself...

To know that no one before you has seen an organ you are examining, to trace relationships that have occurred to no one before, to immerse yourself...

To know that no one before you has seen an organ you are examining, to trace relationships that have occurred to no one before, to immerse yourself...