Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories Quotes

“Remembrance of the past kills all present energy and deadens all hope for the future”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories

“The poor are always rich in children, and in the dirt and ditches of this street there are groups of them from morning to night, hungry, naked and dirty. Children are the living flowers of the earth, but these had the appearance of flowers that have faded prematurely, because they grew in ground where there was no healthy nourishment.”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories

“However low he may fall, a man can never deny himself the delight of feeling cleverer, more powerful or even better fed than his companions.”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories

“But silence is terrible and painful only to those who have said all and have nothing more to speak of; but to those who never had anything to say--to them silence is simple and easy. . . .”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-six and One and Other Stories

“Aside from kringles, we gave Tanya much advice – to dress warmer, not to run fast on the stairs, and not to carry heavy bundles of wood. With a smile she listened, answered in a laugh and never obeyed us, but we were not offended: we only wanted to show that we were concerned for her.”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories

“We were twenty-six men, twenty-six living machines locked in a damp cellar where from morning to night we kneaded dough, making kringles and crackers. The cellar’s windows opened to a brick-lined hole, green with moisture; the frames bolted from outside with thick iron grating, and the sunlight could not pierce the glass, covered in flour dust. Our boss hammered the windows with iron so we could not give a piece of his bread to beggars, or to our comrades who had no work and were starving. Our boss called us swindlers and gave us for lunch instead of meat – tainted tripe.”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and Other Stories

“This noise and brilliancy of sunlight, reverberated a thousand times by the sea, mingled harmoniously in ceaseless and joyous agitation.”
― Maxim Gorky, Twenty-Six and One and Other Stories