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“At night I sit in my room and read the Bible.
In the distance, the sea roars.
Then I lay awake for a long time
and think of the quiet, pale man from Nazareth.”
― Michael
In the distance, the sea roars.
Then I lay awake for a long time
and think of the quiet, pale man from Nazareth.”
― Michael
“He did not want to be original; he made superhuman efforts to be like everybody else: but there is no escaping one's destiny.”
― All Things Are Possible and Penultimates Words and Other Essays
― All Things Are Possible and Penultimates Words and Other Essays
“The question of bread for myself is a material question, but the question of bread for my neighbor is a spiritual question.”
―
―
“They certified that I was sane; but I know that I am mad." This confession gives us the key to what is most important and significant in Tolstoy's hidden life.”
― In Job's Balances: On the Sources of the Eternal Truths
― In Job's Balances: On the Sources of the Eternal Truths
“Not long ago, after my last trip to Russia, I had a conversation with an American very eminent in the field of politics. I asked what he read, and he replied that he studied history, sociology, politics and law.
"How about fiction - novels, plays poetry?" I asked.
"No," he said, "I have never had time for them. There's so much else I have to read."
I said, "Sir, I have recently visited Russia for the third time and don't know how well I understand Russians; but I do know that if I only read Russian history I could not have had the access to Russian thinking I have had from reading Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pushkin, Turgenev, Sholokhov, and Ehrenburg. History only recounts, with some inaccuracy, what they did. The fiction tells, or tries to tell, why they did it and what they felt and were like when they did it."
My friend nodded gravely. "I hadn't though of that," he said. "Yes, that might be so; I had always thought of fiction as opposed to fact."
But in considering the American past, how poor we would be in information without Huckleberry Fin, An American Tragedy, Winesburg, Ohio, Main Street, The Great Gatsby, and As I Lay Dying.”
― America and Americans
"How about fiction - novels, plays poetry?" I asked.
"No," he said, "I have never had time for them. There's so much else I have to read."
I said, "Sir, I have recently visited Russia for the third time and don't know how well I understand Russians; but I do know that if I only read Russian history I could not have had the access to Russian thinking I have had from reading Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pushkin, Turgenev, Sholokhov, and Ehrenburg. History only recounts, with some inaccuracy, what they did. The fiction tells, or tries to tell, why they did it and what they felt and were like when they did it."
My friend nodded gravely. "I hadn't though of that," he said. "Yes, that might be so; I had always thought of fiction as opposed to fact."
But in considering the American past, how poor we would be in information without Huckleberry Fin, An American Tragedy, Winesburg, Ohio, Main Street, The Great Gatsby, and As I Lay Dying.”
― America and Americans
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