A Russian Gentleman Quotes

“That summer I spent a whole month at the place, and every day I went to fish in the early morning, in the lake formed by the mouth of of the rivulet Kakarma where it joins the charming Insa. The hut, where Yevseyitsch lived, was built close to the water's edge, and each day as I approached the lake, I perceived the bent, white-haired old man leaning against the wall of his cottage, facing the rising sun; his withered hands clasped round a staff which he pressed against his breast; while his sightless eyes were raised towards the Eastern sky. He could not see the light, but he enjoyed the warmth, which comforted him in the chilly dawn; and his countenance was at once both serene and melancholy.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Family Chronicle

“Years of Childhood' becomes the more fascinating the more one reads and thinks about it. Aksakoff read a new and ecstatic meaning into things which are banal and tame to most men and women, and the eager eye of his mind scanned deep into the lives and loves of the people round about him."—Morning Post.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“May no harsh judgment and no flippant tongue ever wrong your memory! THE END.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“But you were men and women, and your inward and outward life was not mere dull prose, but as interesting and instructive to us as we and our life in turn will be interesting and instructive to our descendants.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Farewell! my figures, bright or dark, my people, good or bad—I should rather say, figures that have their bright and dark sides, and people who have both virtues and vices.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Excessive feeling always produces an unpleasant impression upon quiet unemotional people; they cannot recognise such a state of mind to be natural, and regard it as a kind of morbid condition which some persons are liable to at times.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“perhaps Stepan Mihailovitch was like many other people, who deliberately prophesy calamities with a secret hope that fortune will reverse their prognostications.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Time will again apply the test and bring back the necessity of self-sacrifice; but meanwhile life runs on without a stop in the ordinary groove, and its peace and adornment and pleasure—what we call happiness, in fact—is made up entirely of trivial things, of small change.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Her whole life—and it might be long—must be spent with a husband whom she loved indeed but could not entirely respect; there would be constant collision between utterly different ideas and opposite qualities, and they would often misunderstand one another.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“The wrath of a gentle patient man is a formidable thing.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Where there is no kindness of heart or refinement of manners, selfishness shows itself without any concealment or apology;”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“A great deal of selfishness underlies human nature; it often works without our knowledge, and no one is exempt from it; honourable and kind people, not recognising selfish motives in themselves, quite honestly attribute their actions to other and more presentable causes; but they deceive themselves and others unintentionally.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Rapturous looks, flaming cheeks, helpless confusion—these are the symbols by which love has always spoken.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“Yes, right has a moral strength before which wrong must bend, for all its boldness.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“The instinct of the tiger is terrible indeed, when combined with the reasoning power of a man.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“The winged musicians swarmed round the bed, drove their long probosces into the fine fabric which protected him, and kept up their monotonous serenade all through the night.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“But the wild beast of yesterday had wakened up as a human being.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman

“But man is the sworn foe of Nature, and she can never withstand his treacherous warfare against her beauty.”
― Sergei Aksakov, A Russian Gentleman