Boris Strugatsky > Quotes

“Man is born in order to think (there he is, Kirill, finally!). Except that I don't believe that. I've never believed it, and I still don't believe it, and what man is born for -I have no idea. He's born, that's all. Scrapes by as best he can.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Haven't you ever noticed, Mr. Glebsky, how much more interesting the unknown is than the known? The unknown makes us think — it makes our blood run a little quicker and gives rise to various delightful trains of thought. It beckons, it promises. It's like a fire flickering in the depths of the night. But as soon as the unknown becomes known, it's just as flat, gray and uninteresting as everything else.”
― Boris Strugatsky, The Dead Mountaineer's Inn

“... and there will always be the ignorant masses, who admire their oppressors and loathe their liberators. And it’s all because a slave has a much better understanding of his master, however brutal, than his liberator, for each slave can easily imagine himself in his master’s place, but few can imagine themselves in the place of a selfless liberator. That’s how people are, Don Rumata, and that’s how our world is.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Hard to Be a God

“Every man is a magician in his heart, but he only becomes a magician when he starts thinking less about himself and more about others, when his work becomes more interesting to him than simply amusing himself in the old meaning of that word.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Понедельник начинается в субботу

“Има само НИЩО ПРЕДИ и НИЩО СЛЕД и животът ти има смисъл само дотогава, докато не си осъзнал това.”
― Boris Strugatsky

“The vast majority of them weren't guilty of anything. They were too passive and too ignorant. Their slavery was the result of passivity and ignorance, and passivity and ignorance again and again breeds slavery.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Hard to Be a God

“You have to be an optimist. No matter how poorly you’ve written your story, there will always be thousands of readers who will consider it nothing short of a masterpiece.
At the same time, you have to be a skeptic. No matter how well you’ve written your story, there will inevitably be thousands of readers who will sincerely believe it’s complete garbage.
And finally, you have to be a realist. No matter how well—or how poorly—you’ve written your story, there will always be millions of people who remain completely indifferent to it. They simply won’t care whether you wrote it or never even started.”
― Boris Strugatsky

“It's very sinful, but when I'm with you, I don't need God.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Hard to Be a God

“He made the sign of the cross, clumsily, with a Catholic accent”
― Boris Strugatsky, Definitely Maybe

“Because a mother wolf can say to her cubs, 'Bite the way I do,' and that's enough, and the mother rabbit teaches her bunnies, 'Run for your lives the way I do,' and that's also enough, but if a man teaches children, 'Think as I do,' it's criminal.”
― Boris Strugatsky, The Ugly Swans

“مردی که درست تربیت شده، شاید حاضر باشد هر چیزی بخواند. کسانی که با مشاهده ی چیزی که کاملا طبیعی است، وحشت زده و ناراحت می شوند، خودشان بدترین خوک ها و متخصص انحراف های جورواجور هستند. آن ها به بهانه ی اخلاق گرایی ساختگی و نفرت انگیزشان، محتوا را به کل نادیده می گیرند و دیوانه وار به واژه ها حمله می کنند.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“Haven’t you ever noticed... how much more interesting the unknown is than the known? The unknown makes us think - it makes our blood run a little quicker and gives rise to various delightful trains of thought. It beckons, it promises. It’s like a fire flickering in the depths of the night. But as soon as the unknown becomes known, it’s just as flat, grey and uninteresting as everything else.”
― Boris Strugatsky, The Dead Mountaineer's Inn

“Holy Mica, we were true humanists over there, on Earth. Humanism was the backbone of our personalities; in our worship of Man, in our love of Man, we even approached anthropocentrism - and here we are suddenly horrified to catch ourselves thinking, 'Are these really humans? Is it possible they are capable of becoming humans, even with time?'.”
― Boris Strugatsky, Hard to Be a God

“Właśnie. Piknik na skraju jakiejś kosmicznej drogi. A ty mnie pytasz, czy oni wrócą, czy nie?”
― Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“No way," I say. "This is no picnic”
― Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic