The Coast of Utopia Quotes

“Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“I fell in love with literature and stayed lovesick all my life.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“If we can’t arrange our own happiness, it’s a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Independence isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know. What country could be more independent than Russia? And in Russia now there isn't a squeak or a pinpoint of light. I have nowhere to publish. The Contemporary has stuck its head up out of harm's way. So I've stopped quarrelling with the world. I sat in this chair the first morning I woke up in this house ... and for the first time ... for a long time, there was silence. I didn't have to talk or think or move, nothing was expected of me, I knew nobody and nobody knew where i was, everything was behind me, all the moving from place to place, the quarrels and celebrations, the desperate concerns of health and happiness, love, death, printer's errors, picnics ruined by rain, the endless tumult of life ... and I just sat quiet and alone all day, looking at the tops of trees on Primrose Hill through the mist.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Татьяна. Отправляйся к ней. Она тебе явно дороже нас, раз она тебя так хорошо понимает.
Михаил. То есть в целом вы не согласны с её анализом?
Александра. В целом она может пойти и повеситься.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Belinsky: 'Who is this Moloch that eats his children?'
Herzen: 'It's the Ginger Cat.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“ALEXANDER (cont.):     How the world must have been changing while I was holding it still.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“BAKUNIN:    Left to themselves, people are noble, generous, uncorrupted, they'd create a completely new kind of society if only people weren't so blind, stupid and selfish.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Эмма. Я хотела кое-что спросить у вас, но вы можете рассердиться.
Тургенев. Тем не менее я вам отвечу. Нет.
Эмма. Но вы же не знаете, что я собиралась спросить?
Тургенев. Не знаю. Но теперь вы можете подогнать свой вопрос к моему ответу.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Бог, в понимании Шеллинга, — это космос, единство природы, которое пробивается к сознанию, и человек — первая победа на этом пути, животные дышат ему в затылок, овощи несколько отстают, а камням пока ещё нечем похвастаться.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“OGAREV (nostalgically):     Ah, Saint-Simon. The rehabilitation of the flesh.
SASHA:    What's that?
OGAREV:    We all get our bodies back, taken from us by Christian guilt. Yes, that was a good one, Saint-Simon's Utopia … the organisation of society by experts, and as much you-know-what as you want.
HERZEN:    Pardon me, it was the development of man's whole nature, moral, intellectual, artistic—not just our sensuality … in the case of which, some of us didn't need encouragement.
OGAREV:     Yes, but without the shame, without the confessing and swearing never to do it again.
HERZEN:     I meant you.
OGAREV:     I meant me, too.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

“Lost objects from another life are restored to you in the belly of a carp.”
― Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia