A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles

if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.

By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.

But when you exile a man into his own country, there is no beginning anew.

There on the third of January 1928, the historians tell us, was the launch of the First Five-Year Plan

“Yes, silence can be an opinion,” said Mishka. “Silence can be a form of protest. It can be a means of survival. But it can also be a school of poetry—one with its own meter, tropes, and conventions. One that needn’t be written with pencils or pens; but that can be written in the soul with a revolver to the chest.”

We are prepared to destroy that which we have created because we believe more than any of them in the power of the picture, the poem, the prayer, or the person.”

For when life makes it impossible for a man to pursue his dreams, he will connive to pursue them anyway.

For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”