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Quote by Ivan Turgenev

“No matter how often you knock at nature's door, she won't answer in words you can understand--for Nature is dumb. She'll vibrate and moan like a violin, but you mustn't expect a song.”

Quote by Ivan Turgenev

Author

A renowned Russian novelist, born on November 9, 1818, and died on September 3, 1883. His works deeply depicted the changes in Russian society, particularly focusing on the lives of peasants and nobility. His representative works include 'Notes of a Hunter' and 'Fathers and Sons'. more

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“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 of life.... A woman will complain of indigestion and not even know that what she means is that her whole life has been shattered.”

Knows Life Mean Persons Has Beens Whole Fate Tragedy Surface Complaining Whole Life Tragic Concealed Shattered Indigestion

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential Turgenev

“Life deceives everyone except the individual who doesn't contemplate it, the individual who demands nothing from it, the individual who serenely accepts its few gifts and serenely makes the most of them.”

Life Individual Accepting Demand Deception Contemplating Deceiving

Author:Ivan Turgenev

“What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.”

Life Life Is Terrible Essence Petty Alienation Futility Essence Of Life

Author:Ivan Turgenev

“Belonging to oneself--the whole essence of life lies in that.”

Life Whole Lying Freedom Essence Oneself Belonging Essence Of Life

Book:The essential Turgenev

Source: The essential Turgenev

“Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.”

People Ifs Art Spiritual Artist Term Moral Creativity Creation Shapes Ideals Core Realms Broads Idealism Defining

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential Turgenev

“As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there's no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better--but you keep working anyway.”

Ifs Inspirational Art Moments Inspiration Artist Waiting Work Remains No Point Without Pain Dilettantes

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential 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 permission, all of a sudden, against his will--just like cholera or a fever.”

Soul Feelings Body Certain Love Is Conditions Illness Possession Permission Fever Cholera

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential Turgenev

“Tempered, gradual animation, the methodical restrain of sensations and energies, the equilibrium of sickness and health in each creature--this is nature's essence, its immutable law, this is what it's based on and what it adheres to.”

Law Energy Nature Health Creatures Essence Sickness Sensations Animation Equilibrium Methodical

Book:Essential Turgenev

Source: Essential 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 obligated to live, in the moment and for the moment.”

Self Moments Life Is Individual Eternal Eternity Superiors Significance Live In The Moment Transience

Author:Ivan Turgenev

“Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we're absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand.”

Hands Fate Ignorance Details Guides Nonsense Harsh

Book:The essential Turgenev

Source: The essential Turgenev