Russia

Explore 97 quotes by people from Russia

To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible punishment so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

House of the Dead

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Topic

Alienating work Alienation Absurdity Shitty jobs Work

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Source

House of the Dead

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1862 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. "Записки из Мёртвого дома [The House of the Dead]." Vremya, 1860-1862.

Current Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead, translated by David McDuff. Penguin Classics, 1986.

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

Vladimir Nabokov

Speak, Memory

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Topic

The human condition Brevity of life Nature of life

Author

Vladimir Nabokov

Source

Speak, Memory

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Nabokov, Vladimir. Speak, Memory. Victor Gollancz, 1951, ch. 1.

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor-such is my idea of happiness.

Leo Tolstoy

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Topic

Happiness Contentment The good life

Speaker

Sergey Mikhalych

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Family Happiness

Language

Russian

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Семейное счастіе [Family Happiness]. The Russian Messenger, 1859.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Family Happiness, translated by J. D. Duff. Harper Perennial, 2009.

Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own reason! This is the motto of the Enlightenment.

Immanuel Kant

What is Enlightenment?

"Sapere aude" is a Latin phrase meaning "dare to know."

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Topic

The enlightenment Reason

Author

Immanuel Kant

Source

What is Enlightenment?

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

German

Time

1784 1780s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Kant, Immanuel. "Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung? [Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?]." Berlinische Monatsschrift, Dec. 1784.

Current Citation

Kant, Immanuel. "An Answer to the Question: 'What is Enlightenment'?" Kant: Political Writings, edited by H. S. Reiss, translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead

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Topic

Privacy Civilization

Author

Ayn Rand

Source

The Fountainhead

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Definition

Language

English

Time

1943 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead. Bobbs Merrill, 1943, pt. 4, ch. 18.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

Vladimir Putin

Read an English translation of this speech in Russian

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Topic

Soviet Union Russia International politics Politics

Speaker

Vladimir Putin

Source

2005 Address to Russian Parliament

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

Russian

Time

2005 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Putin, Vladimir. "Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation." 25 Apr. 2005, The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life.

Boris Pasternak

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Topic

Living in the moment Being present

Speaker

Yuri Andreievich Zhivago

Author

Boris Pasternak

Source

Doctor Zhivago (novel)

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Pasternak, Boris. До́ктор Жива́го [Dr. Zhivago]. Feltrinelli, 1957, pt. 2, ch. 9, sect. 14.

Current Citation

Pasternak, Boris. Doctor Zhivago, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Vintage International, 2011, pt. 2, ch. 9, sect. 14.

A woman's love for us increases
The less we love her, sooth to say-
She stoops, she falls, her struggling ceases;
Caught fast, she cannot get away.

Alexander Pushkin

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Topic

Relationship challenges Love

Author

Alexander Pushkin

Source

Eugene Onegin

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

Russian

Time

1837 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Pushkin, Alexander. Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ [Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse]. St. Petersburg: Alexandr Smirdin, 1833, ch. 4.

Current Citation

Pushkin, Alexander. Eugene Onegin, translated by James E. Falen. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 4.

Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought.

Yevgeny Zamyatin

More information about this quote

Topic

Thinking for oneself Orthodoxy Innovation Heretics Progress

Author

Yevgeny Zamyatin

Source

On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Russian

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Zamyatin, Yevgeny. "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy and Other Matters." A Soviet Heretic, translated by Mirra Ginsburg. University of Chicago Press, 1970. Originally published in 1923.

You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In the First Circle

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Topic

Nothing to lose Freedom Oppression Desperation Liberation

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

In the First Circle

Medium

Novel

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

Russian

Time

1968 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksander. В круге первом [In the First Circle]. Collins & Harvill Press/‎Harper & Row, 1968, ch. 17.

The astonishing thing is not that so many of us went to concentration camps or died there, but that some us survived. Caution did not help. Only chance could save you.

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Hope Abandoned

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Topic

The gulag Soviet Union

Author

Nadezhda Mandelstam

Source

Hope Abandoned

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandelstam, Nadezhda. Hope Abandoned. Collins & Harvill Press/Atheneum Books, ch. 6.

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged

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More information about this quote

Topic

Individualism

Author

Ayn Rand

Source

Atlas Shrugged

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. Random House, 1957, pt. 3, ch. 1.

Treading the soil of the moon, palpating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of the event, feeling in the pit of one's stomach the separation from terre... These form the most romantic sensation an explorer has ever known... This is the only thing I can say about the matter. The utilitarian results do not interest me.

Vladimir Nabokov

More information about this quote

Topic

The moon

Author

Vladimir Nabokov

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Nabokov, Vladimir. Quoted in The New York Times. 21 July 1969.

Departure beyond the borders of my country is for me equivalent to death.

Boris Pasternak

More information about this quote

Topic

Travel

Author

Boris Pasternak

Medium

Letter

Language

Russian

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pasternak, Boris. Letter to Nikita Khrushchev. 30 Oct. 1958.

The only substitute for an experience we ourselves have never lived through is art, literature.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Nobel Prize Lecture

Read this speech at nobelprize.org

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Topic

Power of art Power of literature

Author

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Source

Nobel Prize Lecture

Medium

Speech

Language

Russian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Nobel Lecture in Literature. 1970, Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Sweden.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

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Topic

Relationships Lack of love

Speaker

Anna Karenina

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Anna Karenina

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Анна Каренина [Anna Karenina]. The Russian Messenger, 1875-1877. Serial.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 2014.

If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

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Topic

Perfectionism

Speaker

Natalia

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Anna Karenina

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Анна Каренина [Anna Karenina]. The Russian Messenger, 1875-1877. Serial.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 2014.

Spring is the time of plans and projects.

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

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Topic

Spring Seasons

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Anna Karenina

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Анна Каренина [Anna Karenina]. The Russian Messenger, 1875-1877. Serial.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 2014.

There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone about him.

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

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Topic

Adaptability Man as social animal Human nature

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Anna Karenina

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Анна Каренина [Anna Karenina]. The Russian Messenger, 1875-1877. Serial.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 2014.

Worst of all I fear mediocrity.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

More information about this quote

Topic

Fear Mediocrity Self-doubt

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Source

Letters of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Medium

Letter

Language

Russian

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Letter to Sofya Ivanova. c. 29 Sept. 1867.

Current Citation

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "Letter to Sofya Ivanova, ca. September 29, 1867." Fyodor Dostoevsky: Complete Letters: 1860-1867, edited and translated by David A. Lowe, Ardis, 1989.