Turgenev Quotes

“A thought expressed is a falsehood." In poetry what is not said and yet gleams through the beauty of the symbol, works more powerfully on the heart than that which is expressed in words. Symbolism makes the very style, the very artistic substance of poetry inspired, transparent, illuminated throughout like the delicate walls of an alabaster amphora in which a flame is ignited.

Characters can also serve as symbols. Sancho Panza and Faust, Don Quixote and Hamlet, Don Juan and Falstaff, according to the words of Goethe, are "schwankende Gestalten."

Apparitions which haunt mankind, sometimes repeatedly from age to age, accompany mankind from generation to generation. It is impossible to communicate in any words whatsoever the idea of such symbolic characters, for words only define and restrict thought, but symbols express the unrestricted aspect of truth.

Moreover we cannot be satisfied with a vulgar, photographic exactness of experimental photoqraphv. We demand and have premonition of, according to the allusions of Flaubert, Maupassant, Turgenev, Ibsen, new and as yet undisclosed worlds of impressionability. This thirst for the unexperienced, in pursuit of elusive nuances, of the dark and unconscious in our sensibility, is the characteristic feature of the coming ideal poetry. Earlier Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe said that the beautiful must somewhat amaze, must seem unexpected and extraordinary. French critics more or less successfully named this feature - impressionism.

Such are the three major elements of the new art: a mystical content, symbols, and the expansion of artistic impressionability.

No positivistic conclusions, no utilitarian computation, but only a creative faith in something infinite and immortal can ignite the soul of man, create heroes, martyrs and prophets... People have need of faith, they need inspiration, they crave a holy madness in their heroes and martyrs.

("On The Reasons For The Decline And On The New Tendencies In Contemporary Literature")”
― Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Silver Age of Russian Culture

“It's no good writing if God hasn't given you talent. People will just laugh.”
― Ivan Turgenev

“Although we had had no precise exponents of realism, yet after Pushkin it was impossible for a Russian writer to depart too far from actuality. Even those who did not know what to do with "real life" had to cope with it as best they could. Hence, in order that the picture of life should not prove too depressing, the writer must provide himself in due season with a philosophy.”
― Lev Shestov, All Things are Possible

“When you read Turgenev, you know you are reading Turgenev. When you read Tolstoy, you read just because you cannot stop.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature

“The young woman quoted Turgenev, "If you want to annoy an opponent thoroughly or even harm him, you reproach him with every defect or vice you are conscious of in yourself.”
― Jack Vance, Telek

“می دانید وقتی شما منکر همه چیز شدید، به زودی به عنوان یک آدم عاقل شهرت پیدا می کنید. نیرنگ خوبی است. مردم ساده لوح فورا نتیجه می گیرند که شما از آن چیزی که انکار می کنید برتر هستید. ولی اغلب این امر صحیح نیست. اولا شما ممکن است در هر چیزی عیبی پیدا کنید. در ثانی اگر حقیقت را هم بگویید برای خودتان بدتر است، زیرا وقتی عقل شما صرفا گرفتار نفی کردن باشد فقیر می شود و می خشکد. در عین اینکه حس خودخواهی خود را ارضا می کنید، از لذت واقعی تعمق و اندیشه محروم می شوید. زندگی- ماهیت زندگی- از اندیشه ی ناچیز و سودایی شما می گریزد و کار شما به این جا می کشد که عوعو کنید و مردم را بخندانید.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Rudin

“مردم خیلی از استبداد سخن می گویند... به نظر من هیچ چیزی بدتر از استبداد آدم های به اصطلاح عاقل نیست.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Rudin

“While he was yet young, when he wrote his story, Enough, Turgenev saw that something terrible hung over his life. He saw, but did not get frightened, although he understood that in time he ought to become frightened, because life without a continual inner disturbance would have no meaning for him.”
― Lev Shestov, All Things are Possible

“شخصیت، حضرت آقا، مهم تر از هر چیزی است. شخصیت انسان باید مثل کوه محکم باشد، چه هر چیز دیگر به روی آن بنا می شود.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons

“به گفته ی خود او، رغیت پیری به نام فدور لوبانف عشق به شعر را به او آموخت. در داستان کوتاه خود، پونین و بابورین، این دهقان ساده، با ذوق و صاحب زبان زیبا را توصیف می کند، با او روی علفها، در پشت آبگیر می نشست و دهقان با طمطراق اشعاری از خراسکوف و لومونوسوف را برایش از بر می خواند.”
― Henri Troyat, Turgenev

“من، خود، وابسته به دشت و زمین ام! دوست تر دارم حرکات تند پنجه ی مرطوب اردکی که پشت سرش را در کناره ی مردابی می خاراند تماشا کنم یا قطره های درخشنده ی آبی که از پوزه ی گاوی بی حرکت پس از نوشیدن آب از برکه ای که تا زانو در آن فرو رفته به بیرون می ریزد، نگاه کنم تا این که کروبیان را محو درک خود آز آسمانها ببینم.”
― Henri Troyat, Turgenev