Quotes by Ivan Turgenev

To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.

A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves in full bloom or as they fade away.

In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my countrys fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language!

In the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and, sooner or later, it takes what belongs to it. Unconsciously and inflexibly obedient to its own laws, it doesnt know art, just as it doesnt know freedom, just as it doesnt know goodness.

“Deaths an old story, but new for each person.”

“A withered maple leaf has left its branch and is falling to the ground; its movements resemble those of a butterfly in flight. Isnt it strange? The saddest and deadest of things is yet so like the gayest and most vital of creatures?”

“We’re young, we’re not monsters, no fools: we’ll conquer happiness for ourselves.”