--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There is a sweetness in being the sole…" description: "\"“There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another, and I was l..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg" --- # There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the… ![“There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another, and I was like wax in Zinaïda's hands; though, indeed, I was not the only one in love with her. All the men who visited the house were crazy over her, and she…” quote by Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg) > ““There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another, and I was like wax in Zinaïda's hands; though, indeed, I was not the only one in love with her. All the men who visited the house were crazy over her, and she kept them all in leading-strings at her feet. It amused her to arouse their hopes and then their fears, to turn them round her finger (she used to call it knocking their heads together), while they never dreamed of offering resistance and eagerly submitted to her. About her whole being, so full of life and beauty, there was a peculiarly bewitching mixture of slyness and carelessness, of artificiality and simplicity, of composure and frolicsomeness; about everything she did or said, about every action of hers, there clung a delicate, fine charm, in which an individual power was manifest at work. And her face was ever changing, working too; it expressed, almost at the same time, irony, dreaminess, and passion. Various emotions, delicate and quick-changing as the shadows of clouds on a sunny day of wind, chased one another continually over her lips and eyes.”” [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A charismatic woman manipulates admirers, mixing charm with cruelty, revealing how power can be wielded through emotional control. **In simple terms:** She controls others with charm and cruelty. Key Takeaway Beware of seductive influence. Themes power manipulation love psychology Mood cautious critical Type psychological literary When to use this quote - romantic relationships - political leadership - social influence Key Concepts charisma control emotional dynamics Questions to Reflect On - What signs indicate unhealthy influence? - How can one protect oneself from emotional manipulation? A Different Perspective Such manipulation can cause lasting emotional harm. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Dreaminess Passion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dreaminess-passion-5949015/) [Emotions Delicate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/emotions-delicate-5949017/) [Irony Dreaminess](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/irony-dreaminess-5949018/) [Life and beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-and-beauty/) [Passion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/passion/) [Sunny day](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sunny-day/) [Zinaïda Hands](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/zina-da-hands-5949016/) ## Related quotes > [“Poetry is the language of the gods. I love poems myself. But poetry is not only in poems; it is diffused everywhere, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/poetry-is-the-language-of-the-gods-i-love-poems-myself-but-poetry-is/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [Just as order gave life and beauty to the earth when it was dark and void, so it does to us. Obedience helps us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-e-faust/just-as-order-gave-life-and-beauty-to-the-earth-when-it-was-dark-and/) [James E. Faust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-e-faust/) > [“Life and beauty are gratuitous in the best senses of that word.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/makoto-fuijmura/life-and-beauty-are-gratuitous-in-the-best-senses-of-that-word/) [Makoto Fuijmura](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/makoto-fuijmura/) > [“Somehow I cannot help being reminded of a frail, consumptive girl, at whom one sometimes looks with compassion, sometimes with sympathetic love, whom sometimes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fyodor-dostoyevsky/somehow-i-cannot-help-being-reminded-of-a-frail-consumptive-girl-at/) [fyodor dostoyevsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fyodor-dostoyevsky/) > [The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/the-greed-of-gain-has-no-time-or-limit-to-its-capaciousness-its-one/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining. When the spirit has gone they give the body back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-carr/indians-do-not-hinder-the-progress-of-their-dead-by-embalming-or/) [Emily Carr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-carr/) > [A glamazon is someone who's taken a love of beauty and life and listen, depending on the weather or how my blood sugar at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupaul/a-glamazon-is-someone-who-s-taken-a-love-of-beauty-and-life-and/) [RuPaul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupaul/) > [“Books are the immortality of the race, the father and mother of most that is worth while cherishing in our hearts. To spread good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-morley/books-are-the-immortality-of-the-race-the-father-and-mother-of-most/) [Christopher Morley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-morley/) > [The life, beauty and meaning of the whole created order, from the tomtit to the Milky Way, refers back to the Absolute Life and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-underhill/the-life-beauty-and-meaning-of-the-whole-created-order-from-the/) [Evelyn Underhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-underhill/) > [We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/we-must-begin-thinking-like-a-river-if-we-are-to-leave-a-legacy-of/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“We all build internal sea walls to keep at bay the sadness of life and the often overwhelming forces within our minds. In whatever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kay-redfield-jamison/we-all-build-internal-sea-walls-to-keep-at-bay-the-sadness-of-life/) [Kay Redfield Jamison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kay-redfield-jamison/) > [When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-buckminster-fuller/when-i-m-working-on-a-problem-i-never-think-about-beauty-i-think-only/) [R. Buckminster Fuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-buckminster-fuller/) > [“I believe that the Earth is the most likely place for love to flourish. We are surrounded by life and beauty, and we have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ron-kurtz/i-believe-that-the-earth-is-the-most-likely-place-for-love-to/) [Ron Kurtz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ron-kurtz/) > [A silkworm was struggling out of the cocoon and an ignorant man saw it battling as if in pain, so he went and helped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sadhu-sundar-singh/a-silkworm-was-struggling-out-of-the-cocoon-and-an-ignorant-man-saw/) [Sadhu Sundar Singh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sadhu-sundar-singh/) > [He must put aside his pride, his virtue, beauty and life and bow or submit to the absolutely intolerable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/he-must-put-aside-his-pride-his-virtue-beauty-and-life-and-bow-or/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) ## More by Ivan Turgenev > [What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/what-a-magnificent-body-how-i-should-like-to-see-it-on-the-dissecting/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“I think; here I lie under a haystack… The tiny space I occupy is so infinitely small in comparison with the rest of space,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/i-think-here-i-lie-under-a-haystack-the-tiny-space-i-occupy-is-so/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [That is what poetry can do. It speaks to us of what does not exist, which is not only better than what exists, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/that-is-what-poetry-can-do-it-speaks-to-us-of-what-does-not-exist/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [So long as one's just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/so-long-as-one-s-just-dreaming-about-what-to-do-one-can-soar-like-an/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/most-people-can-t-understand-how-others-can-blow-their-noses/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [The past was a dream wasn't it? And who ever remembers dreams?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/the-past-was-a-dream-wasn-t-it-and-who-ever-remembers-dreams/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“But I think that I have already been moving too long in a sphere which is not my own. Flying fishes can hold out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/but-i-think-that-i-have-already-been-moving-too-long-in-a-sphere/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“There was nothing ugly in the small, unprepossessing figure of this emancipated woman, but the expression on her face made a bad impression on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-was-nothing-ugly-in-the-small-unprepossessing-figure-of-this/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“In his funeral oration the spokesman of the most artistic and critical of European nations, Ernest Renan, hailed him as one of the greatest…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/in-his-funeral-oration-the-spokesman-of-the-most-artistic-and/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 without his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/love-isn-t-actually-a-feeling-at-all-it-s-an-illness-a-certain/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 banal surface…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-s-something-tragic-in-the-fate-of-almost-every-person-it-s-just/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“But I had absolutely lost all sense of personal dignity, and could not tear myself away from the spectacle of my own misery.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/but-i-had-absolutely-lost-all-sense-of-personal-dignity-and-could-not/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“My son,' he wrote to me, 'fear the love of woman; fear that bliss, that poison…”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/my-son-he-wrote-to-me-fear-the-love-of-woman-fear-that-bliss-that/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [Great God, grant that twice two be not four.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/great-god-grant-that-twice-two-be-not-four/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/what-s-terrible-is-that-there-s-nothing-terrible-that-the-very/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) [Explore all 146 Ivan Turgenev quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) ## More Life and beauty quotes > [Just as order gave life and beauty to the earth when it was dark and void, so it does to us. Obedience helps us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-e-faust/just-as-order-gave-life-and-beauty-to-the-earth-when-it-was-dark-and/) [James E. Faust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-e-faust/) > [A silkworm was struggling out of the cocoon and an ignorant man saw it battling as if in pain, so he went and helped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sadhu-sundar-singh/a-silkworm-was-struggling-out-of-the-cocoon-and-an-ignorant-man-saw/) [Sadhu Sundar Singh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sadhu-sundar-singh/) > [“I believe that the Earth is the most likely place for love to flourish. We are surrounded by life and beauty, and we have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ron-kurtz/i-believe-that-the-earth-is-the-most-likely-place-for-love-to/) [Ron Kurtz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ron-kurtz/) > [When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-buckminster-fuller/when-i-m-working-on-a-problem-i-never-think-about-beauty-i-think-only/) [R. Buckminster Fuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-buckminster-fuller/) > [“Poetry is the language of the gods. I love poems myself. But poetry is not only in poems; it is diffused everywhere, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/poetry-is-the-language-of-the-gods-i-love-poems-myself-but-poetry-is/) [Ivan Turgenev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/) > [“We all build internal sea walls to keep at bay the sadness of life and the often overwhelming forces within our minds. In whatever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kay-redfield-jamison/we-all-build-internal-sea-walls-to-keep-at-bay-the-sadness-of-life/) [Kay Redfield Jamison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kay-redfield-jamison/) > [We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/we-must-begin-thinking-like-a-river-if-we-are-to-leave-a-legacy-of/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The life, beauty and meaning of the whole created order, from the tomtit to the Milky Way, refers back to the Absolute Life and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evelyn-underhill/the-life-beauty-and-meaning-of-the-whole-created-order-from-the/) [Evelyn Underhill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evelyn-underhill/) > [“Books are the immortality of the race, the father and mother of most that is worth while cherishing in our hearts. To spread good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-morley/books-are-the-immortality-of-the-race-the-father-and-mother-of-most/) [Christopher Morley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-morley/) > [A glamazon is someone who's taken a love of beauty and life and listen, depending on the weather or how my blood sugar at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupaul/a-glamazon-is-someone-who-s-taken-a-love-of-beauty-and-life-and/) [RuPaul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupaul/) > [Indians do not hinder the progress of their dead by embalming or tight coffining. When the spirit has gone they give the body back…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-carr/indians-do-not-hinder-the-progress-of-their-dead-by-embalming-or/) [Emily Carr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-carr/) > [The greed of gain has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Its one object is to produce and consume. It has pity neither…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/the-greed-of-gain-has-no-time-or-limit-to-its-capaciousness-its-one/) [Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/) > [“Somehow I cannot help being reminded of a frail, consumptive girl, at whom one sometimes looks with compassion, sometimes with sympathetic love, whom sometimes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fyodor-dostoyevsky/somehow-i-cannot-help-being-reminded-of-a-frail-consumptive-girl-at/) [fyodor dostoyevsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fyodor-dostoyevsky/) > [“Life and beauty are gratuitous in the best senses of that word.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/makoto-fuijmura/life-and-beauty-are-gratuitous-in-the-best-senses-of-that-word/) [Makoto Fuijmura](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/makoto-fuijmura/) > [He must put aside his pride, his virtue, beauty and life and bow or submit to the absolutely intolerable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-campbell/he-must-put-aside-his-pride-his-virtue-beauty-and-life-and-bow-or/) [Joseph Campbell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-campbell/) [Browse all 24 Life and beauty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-and-beauty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy and profoundest pain to another, and I was like wax in Zinaïda's hands; though, indeed, I was not the only one in love with her. All the men who visited the house were crazy over her, and she kept them all in leading-strings at her feet. It amused her to arouse their hopes and then their fears, to turn them round her finger (she used to call it knocking their heads together), while they never dreamed of offering resistance and eagerly submitted to her. About her whole being, so full of life and beauty, there was a peculiarly bewitching mixture of slyness and carelessness, of artificiality and simplicity, of composure and frolicsomeness; about everything she did or said, about every action of hers, there clung a delicate, fine charm, in which an individual power was manifest at work. And her face was ever changing, working too; it expressed, almost at the same time, irony, dreaminess, and passion. Various emotions, delicate and quick-changing as the shadows of clouds on a sunny day of wind, chased one another continually over her lips and eyes.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Turgenev" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-source-the-autocratic-and/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Life and beauty" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-source-the-autocratic-and/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/64b/ivan-turgenev-2671_sunny-day_there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-s_1577086.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There is a sweetness in being the sole source, the autocratic and irresponsible cause of the greatest joy…” — Ivan Turgenev", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ivan Turgenev", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-turgenev/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“There is a sweetness in being...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-source-the-autocratic-and/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-turgenev/there-is-a-sweetness-in-being-the-sole-source-the-autocratic-and/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```