Great Throughts Treasury

"For public opinion does not admit that lofty rapturous laughter is worthy to stand beside lofty lyrical emotion and that there is all the difference in the world between it and the antics of a clown at a fair."

"He did not like what he read, but rather the reading itself, or rather, the process of reading itself, where there all the time but from the letter indicates any word that sometimes the devil knows what means. This reading was commonly performed in the hall on the bed in a horizontal position on the mattress, which had become so hard and firm like a pancake as a result of that fact."

"Getting under the bedclothes fell fast asleep, fell into a sound sleep, into that wonderful sleep which only happy mortals enjoy who know nothing of hemorrhoids, or fleas, or strongly developed intellectual faculties."

"He is now a brash young man be horrified if he saw the picture of what will be in old age. Take away with you when you leave human impulses of the easy years of youth to enter manhood severe that everything hardened, I take him, do not abandon the road. Then be not be possible to recover! The old age awaits, horrible and awesome, never returns anything! More compassionate that old age is the grave, it will be written: Here are buried a man, but nothing can be read in the callous and cold features the inhuman age."

"He who has talent in him must be purer in soul than anyone else. Another will be forgiven much, but to him it will not be forgiven. A man who leaves the house in bright, festive clothes needs only one drop of mud splashed from under a wheel, and people all surround him, point their fingers at him, and talk about his slovenliness, while the same people ignore many spots on other passers-by who are wearing everyday clothes. For on everyday clothes the spots do not show."

"Here you come across moustaches so wonderful that neither pen nor brush can do justice to them, moustaches to which the best years of a lifetime have been devoted-the object of long hours of vigil by day and by night; moustaches upon which all the perfumes of Arabia have been lavished, the most exquisite scents and essences, and which have been anointed with the rarest and most precious pomades; moustaches which are wrapped up for the night in the most delicate vellum; moustaches for which their possessors show a most touching affection and which are the envy of all those who behold them."

"His name was Akaky. Maybe the reader it seems a bit strange and turn up, but we can assure you that it does not seek, and what happened by themselves such circumstances that it was impossible to give a different name, and it happened this way. Born Akaky against night unless memory serves, on March 23. Deceased mother, and an official in a very nice woman, located as follows, to christen the child. My mother was still lying on the bed facing the door, and on the right hand and stood godfather, Ripper, Ivan Eroshkin, who served as head clerk in the Senate, and godmother, wife quarterly officer, a woman of rare virtues, Arina S. Belobryushkova. Puerperas provided to choose any of the three, what she wants to choose: mocha, Sosso, or to name the child in the name of the martyr Hozdazata. No - thought deceased - names-all are. To please her launched a calendar elsewhere; came again three names Trifilov, Dula and Varakhasy. This is a punishment - said the old woman, - what all the names, I really never heard of such. Suppose would have Varadat or Baruch and then Trifilov and Varakhasy. Another coup page - left: Pavsikahy and Vahtisy. Well, that I can see - the old woman said, - that shows his fate. Well, if so, let it be better to be called, just like his father. Akaki father was, so let the son will Akaki"

"How dare you, I repeat, In disregard of all decency, call me a goose?- I spit on your head, Ivan Ivanovich! What are you screaming so for?"

"How much inhumanity to man, how much savage coarseness is concealed in a sophisticated, educated secular, and, oh! even the person whom the world recognizes the noble and honest."

"However stupid a fools words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man."

"I am who I am and that's who I am."

"I am very fond of the modest manner of life of those solitary owners of remote villages, who in Little Russia are commonly called "old-fashioned," who are like tumbledown picturesque little houses, delightful in their simplicity and complete unlikeness to the new smooth buildings whose walls have not yet been discolored by the rain, whose roofs are not yet covered with green lichen, and whose porch does not display its bricks through the peeling stucco."

"I just confuse that exceedingly motley crowd, as if the devil had gathered pieces and shred the world back then, with no respect to no avail."

"I shall laugh my bitter laugh. [Epitaph on Gogol's tombstone]"

"In his eyes I read often a burning desire to take part in some interesting or join another group conversation, but was retained at the thought that this might seem excessive for one or too familiar, and that this would lower his dignity. And so remained eternally alone in the same silent attitude, occasionally emitting a monotonous sound, which came to pass for a man of the most boring."

"I tell everyone very plainly that I take bribes, but what kind of bribes? Why, greyhound puppies. That's a totally different matter."

"In the course of reading he became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorrow: "Goodness, how sad is our Russia!""

"It is well-known that there are many faces in the world over the finishing of which nature did not take much trouble, did not employ any fine tools such as files, gimlets, and so on, but simply hacked them out with round strokes: one chop-a nose appears; another chop-lips appear; eyes are scooped out with a big drill; and she lets it go into the world rough-hewn, saing: ALIVE!"

"It seemed that both had lately had a touch of that pain under the waistband which comes of a sedentary life."

"Indeed, more than two minutes, the nose out. It was a uniform sewn in gold thread with a stiff collar and high suede pants and short sword. After pompon hat with feathers, could be seen as having degree state adviser."

"It's not my job to preach a sermon. Art is anyhow a homily. My job is to speak in living images, not in arguments. I must exhibit life full-face, not discuss life."

"It's the most righteous, which of course is not the same thing as the most profitable."

"Joy in the second moment of its arrival is already less keen than in the first, is still fainter in the third, and finishes by coalescing with our normal mental state, just as the circles which the fall of a pebble forms on the surface of water, gradually die away."

"Man is such a wondrous being that it is never possible to count up all his merits at once. The more you study him, the more new particulars appear, and their description would be endless."

"Manilov was pleased by these final words, but he still couldn't make sense of the deal itself, and for want of an answer, he began sucking his clay pipe so hard that it started to wheeze like a bassoon. He seemed to be trying to extract from it an opinion about this unprecedented business; but the clay pipe only wheezed and said nothing."

"Never pity takes us so strongly that show the beauty achieved by the poisonous breath of debauchery."

"Never mind beauty! Concentrate on the things that matter."

"Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book."

"Of course, Alexander the Great was a hero, but why smash the chairs?"

"Now every particular person believes insulted in his person the whole of society."

"Oh troika, winged troika, tell me who invented you? Surely, nowhere but among a nimble nation could you have been born in a country which has taken itself in earnest and has evenly spread far and wide over half of the globe, so that once you start counting the milestones you may count on till a speckled haze dances before your eyes... Rus, are you not similar in your headlong motion to one of those nimble troikas that none can overtake? The flying road turns into smoke under you, bridges thunder and pass, all fall back and is left behind!... And what does this awesome motion mean? What is the passing strange steeds! Has the whirlwind a home in your manes?... Rus, whither are you speeding to? Answer me. No answer. The middle bell trills out in a dream its liquid soliloquy; the roaring air is torn to pieces and becomes wind; all things on earth fly by and other nations and states gaze askance as they step aside and give her the right of way."

"Oh, Russian narodec! does not like to die a natural death!"

"The experience of ages has shown that a man who works on the land is purer, nobler, higher, and more moral... Agriculture should be at the basis of everything. That's my idea."

"So far, women did not know anyone who is in love with whom. I was the one who first recognized it. Women are in love with the devil."

"Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all."

"Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?"

"The fair-haired man was one of those people in whose character there is at first sight a certain obstinacy. Before you can open your mouth, they are already prepared to argue and, it seems, will never agree to anything that is clearly contrary to their way of thinking, will never call a stupid thing smart, and in particular will never dance to another man's tune; but it always ends up that there is a certain softness in their character, that they will agree precisely to what they had rejected, will call a stupid thing smart, and will then go off dancing their best to another man's tune - in short, starts out well, ends in hell."

"The Lord grant we may all be tillers of the soil."

"The glory can bring joy to who stole: it does beat the hearts worthy of it."

"The majority were of the species who, all the world over, look on the world and at everything that goes on in it and merely scratch their noses."

"The moon is but usually produced in Hamburg, and very sloppy. I am surprised that the UK does not pay attention. A lame cooper makes him, and the Fool obviously has no idea of the moon. He takes tarred rope and a sub-tree oil, and it spreads over the earth horrible stench, so you have to stop up the nose. And therefore the moon is such a fragile ball, on which no man can live only on the nose live. And that's why we can not see our noses themselves, because they are on the moon."

"The room into which Ivan Ivanovich stepped was quite dark, because the shutters were closed and the sunbeam that penetrated through a hole in the shutter was broken into rainbow hues and painted upon the opposite wall a multicolored landscape of thatched roofs, trees, and clothes hanging in the yard, but all upside down. This made an uncanny twilight in the whole room."

"The sergeant's widow told you a lie when she said I flogged her. I never flogged her. She flogged herself."

"The world is full of nonsense. Sometimes what happens is really completely unbelievable. And so, the nose which lately had gone about as a State Councilor and stirred up the city, suddenly reoccupied its proper place (between the two cheeks of Major Kovalev) as though nothing at all had happened. The date was April 7th, and when, that morning, the major awoke as usual, and, as usual, threw a despairing glance at the mirror, he this time, beheld before him, what??why, the nose again! Instantly he took hold of it. Yes, really, the nose!"

"There are certain words which are nearer and dearer to a man than any others."

"There are occasions when a woman, no matter how weak and impotent in character she may be in comparison with a man, will yet suddenly become not only harder than any man, but even harder than anything and everything in the world."

"There are passions that it is not for man to choose."

"The more destruction there is everywhere, the more it shows the activity of town authorities."

"The parental eye shed no tears when the time for leave-taking came; a half-rouble in copper coins was given to the boy by way of pocket-money and for sweets, and what is more important, the following admonition: Mind now, Pavlusha, be diligent, don't fool or gad about, and above all please your teachers and superiors. If you please your superiors, then you will be popular and get ahead of everyone even if you lag behind in knowledge and talent. Don't be too friendly with the other boys, they will teach you no good; but if you do make friends, cultivate those who are better off and might be useful. Don't invite or treat anyone, but conduct yourself in such a way as to be treated yourself, and above all, take care of and save your pennies, that is the most reliable of all things. A comrade or friend will cheat you and be the first to put all the blame on you when in a fix, but the pennies won't betray you in any difficulty. With money you can do anything in the world. Having admonished his son thus, the father took leave of him and trundled off home on his 'magpie'. Though from that day the son never set eyes on him more, his words and admonitions had sunk deep into his soul."

"There are people who exist in this world not like entities but like the speckles or spots on something."