Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy Quotes

“I cannot emphasize it too strongly that our gifts-whether they consist in wealth, or in the ability to sing, to paint, to build, or to count-are not given unto us to be used for our pleasure merely, or as means of our advancement, weather social or intellectual. But they are given unto us that we may use them for helping those who need help.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“We approach truth only in so far as we are removed from life.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“no, my friends, let logic cry never so loudly at the necessity of struggle for existence, and competition for bread between men, when the great God hath provided enough for a hundredfold of the present number of men if they but chose to help one another.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“first articulate utterance in his message is therefore that of boundless faith in the practicability of living”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“that he is aught else now; that mere art, in fact, is to him a business no longer worthy of a serious soul.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“Tolstoy's masterpieces therefore are panoramas, and his art instinctively seeks that material which easiest lends itself to such purpose.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“For the first question Tolstoy asks of every event, of every phenomenon he has to depict, is, What effect has this on the soul of man; what bearing has this on the life of man; what, in short, is its moral meaning? Hence when Tolstoy paints, he paints not only objectively, but also subjectively”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“But none of these live in letters because of their art. Were they to depend on this alone, they would quickly perish. They live because of the spirit which worketh through them;”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“In an age when sentiment has become a byword of impotence, and the heart has become a mere force-pump for the blood;”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“The highest is ever inexplicable, and it is the bane of modern science that it is ever ready to explain what cannot be explained. Before the highest we can only stand dumb; and this has been the feeling of the greatest, because of the humblest, of spirits.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“cannot be stated too often that whatever puts new strength into the spirit is from the great God, the Good; and whatever takes strength from the spirit is from the great Devil, the Evil. And the things that have ever proved the inexhaustible sources of strength to the soul have been not doubt and despair, but faith and hope,—faith that the destinies of men are guided by love even though guided through the agony of sorrow; faith that behind this appearance of discord and blind fate and brute force there is after all to be found the substance of harmony, of wise forethought, of tender love; hope, that however terrible the present, the future will yet be one of joy, one of peace. If reason with its logic can strengthen this faith, this hope, then welcome reason, blessed be reason;”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“THE THRESHOLD. I see a huge building; in its front wall a narrow door opens wide; behind the door gloomy darkness. At the high threshold stands a girl, a Russian girl. Frost waves from that impenetrable darkness, and with the icy breeze comes forth from the depth of the building a slow, hollow voice. “O thou, eager to step across this threshold, knowest thou what awaits thee?” “I know,” answers the girl. “Cold, hunger, hatred, ridicule, scorn, insolence, prison, illness, death itself!” “I know it.” “Complete isolation, loneliness.” “I know it.… But I am ready. I shall endure all the sorrows, all the blows.” “Not only at the hands of your enemies, but also at the hands of your family and friends.” “Yes, even at the hands of these.” “'Tis well.… Are you ready for the sacrifice?” “Yes.” “For nameless sacrifice? Thou shalt perish; and not one, not one even shall know whose memory to honor.” “I need no gratitude nor pity; I need no name.” “And art thou ready even for—crime?” The girl dropped her head. “Yes, even for crime am I ready.” The voice renewed not its questionings forthwith. “Knowest thou,” spake the voice for the last time, “that thou mayest be disenchanted in thy ideals, that thou yet mayest come to see that thou wert misguided, and that thy young life has been wasted in vain?” “This also I know, and yet I am ready to enter.” “Enter, then.” The girl stepped over the threshold, and the heavy curtain dropped behind her. “Fool!” some one muttered behind her. “Saint!” came from somewhere in reply.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“welfare of the country. But after that book, when the scepticism had become part of his being, his method changes. For he now becomes convinced that the misrule of Russia is not so much due to the government as to the people themselves; that existence is in itself evil; that salvation, therefore, if it can come at all, must come not from without, but from within; that reform, therefore, was needed not so much for the institution, as for the men themselves. And to him men are diseased. He no longer therefore paints individual men, but henceforth he paints types;”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“behind everything laughable there is at bottom not a comedy but a tragedy; that at bottom it is the cold head only which laughs, and not the warm heart.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“the sight of the ugly cancer would help its removal. Thus he became the conscious protester, the critic of autocracy;”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“Youth flashed by her joylessly, and her beautiful fresh cheeks and fingers had withered away without kisses, and were covered with premature wrinkles. All her love, all her tenderness, whatever was soft and passionate in woman, was merged in her into the one feeling of a mother.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“his doom, his tender susceptible heart begins to flutter with right serious ado at the sight of a dame of high social position who hardly deigns to cast even a glance at the moneyless, ill-clad, clumsy, rustic lad,—sorrows enough for a soul far better equipped for battle with Fortune than this poor Cossak lad.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“Let near the entrance to my grave
Cheerful youth be engaged in play,
And let indifferent creation
Shine there with beauty eternally.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“THE ANGEL. At the gates of Eden a tender Angel
With drooping head was shining;
A demon gloomy and rebellious
Over the abyss of hell was flying. The spirit of Denial, the spirit of Doubt,
The spirit of purity espied;
And unwittingly the warmth of tenderness
He for the first time learned to know. Adieu, he spake. Thee I saw;
Not in vain hast thou shone before me.
Not all in the world have I hated,
Not all in the world have I scorned.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“there are two, of which the first is Moderation and the second is Modesty: moderation with reference to things outside of the soul; modesty with reference to things inside of the soul.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“spirit of man soon discovers that the powers of darkness are not to be conquered by violence, by battle against the men possessed of them, but by faith in the final triumph of the Good, by submission to Fate, by endurance of what can be borne, by reverence towards God, and lastly by mercy towards men. The soul thus discovers its true haven; it lays down the sword; its voice calls no longer to strife, but to peace; it now inspires and uplifts, and Greek literature ends with Socrates and Plato, Rome with Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, England with Carlyle and Ruskin, America with Emerson, and Germany with Goethe.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“spirit of man soon discovers that the powers of darkness are not to be conquered by violence, by battle against the men possessed of them, but by faith in the final triumph of the Good, by submission to Fate, by endurance of what can be borne, by reverence towards God, and lastly by mercy towards men. The soul thus discovers its true haven; it lays down the sword; its voice calls no longer to strife,”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy

“Literature then becomes full of purpose; becomes aggressive, attacks now the throne, now the church, now the law, now the institution, now the person. Tragedy is followed by comedy, sentiment by satire; Æschylus is followed by Aristophanes, Horace is followed by Juvenal and Martial; Racine is followed by Voltaire, and Byron by Dickens. This is the stage of war.”
― Ivan Panin, Lectures on Russian Literature Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy