Ivan Turgenev

However much you knock at nature's door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.

— Ivan Turgenev

“In ieder geval zal het bij een juiste inrichting van der maatschappij geen enkel verschil maken of iemand dom of verstandig, slecht…

— Ivan Turgenev

There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to…

— Ivan Turgenev

People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their…

— Ivan Turgenev

Looking about me, listening and recalling what the day had been like, I suddenly felt a secret unease in my heart and…

— Ivan Turgenev

Anyone who has crossed from the district of Bolkhov into that of Zhizdra will probably have been struck by the sharp difference…

— Ivan Turgenev

“Death is like a fisherman who has caught a fish in his net and leaves it for a time in the water:…

— Ivan Turgenev

A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only…

— Ivan Turgenev

All human beings hang by a thread, an abyss may open under their feet at any moment, and yet they have to…

— Ivan Turgenev

I was afraid of looking into my heart...afraid of thinking seriously about anything...I did not want to know whether I was loved,…

— Ivan Turgenev

We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we're barely past…

— Ivan Turgenev

The people who bind themselves to systems are those who are unable to encompass the whole truth and try to catch it…

— Ivan Turgenev

Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy…

— Ivan Turgenev

Love isn't actually a feeling at all--it's an illness, a certain condition of body and soul… Usually it takes possession of someone…

— Ivan Turgenev

“I burnt as in a fire in her presence ... but what did I care to know what the fire was in…

— Ivan Turgenev

Death is like a fisherman, who, having caught a fish in his net, leaves it in the water for a time; the…

— Ivan Turgenev

However passionate, sinning, and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their…

— Ivan Turgenev

Oh youth, youth! You don't worry about anything; you seem to possess all the treasures of the universe--even sorrow gives you pleasure,…

— Ivan Turgenev

“And I used to think, after all, I'll do a whole mass of things, I'll not die, no way! There's a task…

— Ivan Turgenev

“First love is like a revolution; the uniformly regular routine of ordered life is broken down and shattered in one instant; youth…

— Ivan Turgenev

“Good-bye,' he said with sudden force, and his eyes gleamed with their last light. 'Good-bye… Listen ... you know I didn't kiss…

— Ivan Turgenev

“Arkardy went on,with the air of a man who has got into a bog,feels that he is sinking further and further in…

— Ivan Turgenev

“Well, what had I to say to you ... I loved you! there was no sense in that even before, and less…

— Ivan Turgenev

Ah, but in time the heat of noontide passes, and to it there succeed nightfall and dusk, with a return to the…

— Ivan Turgenev

There's something tragic in the fate of almost every person--it's just that the tragic is often concealed from a person by the…

— Ivan Turgenev

Each individual is more or less dimly aware of his significance, is aware that he's something innately superior, something eternal--and lives, is…

— Ivan Turgenev