Dmytro

“A Russian hardly commits any action without the previous ceremony. If he is to serve as coachman, and drive your carriage, his crossing occupies two minutes before he is mounted. When he descends, the same motion is repeated. If a church is in view, you see him at work with his head and hand, as if seized with St Vitus's dance. If he makes any earnest protestation, or enters a room, or goes out, you are entertained with the same manual and capital exercise. When beggars return thanks for alms, the operation lasts a longer time, and then between the crossing, by way of interlude, they generally touch their forehead to the earth.”
― Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels to Russia, Tartary and Turkey

“The picture of Russian manners varies little with reference to the prince or the peasant. The first nobleman in the empire, when dismissed by his sovereign from attendance upon his person, or withdrawing to his estate in consequence of dissipation and debt, betakes himself to a mode of life little superior to that of brutes. You will then find him throughout the day, with his neck bare, his beard lengthened, his body wrapped in a sheep's hide, eating raw turnips, and drinking quass, sleeping one half of the day, and growling at his wife and family the other. The same feelings, the same wants, wishes, and gratifications, then characterise the nobleman and the peasant; and the same system of tyranny, which extends from the throne downwards, through all the bearings and ramifications of society, even to the cottage of the lowest boor, has entirely extinguished every spark of liberality in the breasts of a people who are all slaves. They are all, high and low, rich and poor, alike servile to superiors; haughty and cruel to their dependents; ignorant, superstitious, cunning, brutal, barbarous, dirty, mean. The emperor canes the first of his grandees; princes and nobles cane their slaves; and the slaves their wives and daughters. Ere the sun dawns in Russia, flagellation begins; and throughout its vast empire cudgels are going, in every department of its immense population, from morning until night.”
― Edward Daniel Clarke, Travels to Russia, Tartary and Turkey

“Герой доби встає в цій аврі
Космічних бур, космічних гроз,
Як спраглий містечкових лаврів
Здрібнілий мікромалорос.”
― Євген Маланюк, Поезії в одному томі

“Бо вороги не згинуть, як роса,
Раби не можуть взріти сонця волі,
Хай згине скитсько-еллінська краса
На тучнім припонтійським суходолі, -
Щоб власний Рим кордоном вперезав
І поруч Лаври - станув Капітолій.”
― Євген Маланюк, Поезії в одному томі