You can write when you have ideas. Chopin seems to have done so. Don't sit down and write to order.
Humility is the consciousness of perfection, the example is Pushkin.
In my advanced years I see clearly that the only salvation from robberies and murders is kindness.
Evil is eradicated by evil before our eyes, and continues to increase, and the method of Jesus is not even tried. No one has tried what I propose. Chances are it will work.
The desire to amaze is not a good trait. The artist writes what he thinks necessary and is not interested in the effect. It's a temptation. The thought that you can act like this on people must be kept as far away as possible.
... Preaching is a temptation. It is an activity for the sake of consequences. Just like the socialist one, for the constitution. [Man] must direct all his efforts to live well himself, and the fruits, even if he will not see them in this life, will be of the best.
In art the most important thing is a sense of measure, which Gorky completely lacks. It's amazing how these glories appear by chance and stay firmly in place, like the old ones, for example Nekrasov, who was never a poet.
The most terrible disease is trust in the doctor!
... Revolution is the pain of making through which spiritual consciousness is awakened.
Freedom in education is very good, but it is a mistake to remove children from the family environment. For a child there is nothing better than family.
... One thing I do not dare. To reproach the Russian people, who produce all the things through which we live.
I think patriotism will always be stronger than anarchism. I'm really confident about it. How could man renounce the traditions of the environment in which he grew up?
... Spirit is real, matter is fiction.
... The big city is a tight-rope institution.
In the city, people gather only to fool each other, in administrations, banks, commerce, educational institutions...
Pushkin's short stories can be learned by heart more easily than his poems.
... How wonderful it is not to desire anything external. I want only one thing, even when I ride: moral perfection, which partly depends on me.
... The essence of life is God. God manifests in the soul through love. Thus, He manifests in me and in other people, and this unites us.
Power is impossible to avoid. For me it is an essential issue. I am aware that any institution represents an inequality. The ideal cannot be reached in anything. State, religious, national unionism is one of the greatest temptations.
In making up the Reading Circle, apart from the contributions of Lucy Malory *, who repeats what others have said, I drew nothing from what was written by women. There is no woman who is a philosopher, nor in science any woman who has made discoveries. A woman's purpose is to be a mother. Which doesn't necessarily mean getting married. Just be an honest, decent woman.
The Papuan confused me. How do I approach the issue of morality with him? I then thought that the whites are the same, even worse, everything drips from them, the moral doctrine does not penetrate them, it drips.
It is necessary to spread the knowledge of the human race so that the baby knows that it is not alone, but also has black brothers.
Love begets love. But we don't have to wait for that, but to love even if we are not reciprocated with love. The greatest good is not to be loved, but to love everyone. Then he is a peaceful, happy man.
Tall buildings will be viewed in the future as we view pyramids.
The beginning of Dostoevsky's novels is always good, but the continuation is an unimaginable absurdity.
The artistic image of symbolic Christianity does not arouse my sympathy. It seems to me that her time has passed. Christian art should depict the Christian life, not Christ.
When there is food left on the plate, I remember how the Chechens once took a Russian prisoner. For them, redemption is the most important thing, and they wanted to know if the prisoner was noble or not, and he told them that he was a commoner. They didn't feed him for two days and then they gave him an apple. He ate half and kept the other half. Then they decided he was noble.
... If people, let's say two people sitting next to each other, belong to two different parties, and their agendas are opposite, then it should be clear to them that the truth is not to be found there.
Jews lack the sense of religion. Both the Old Testament and Spinoza's philosophy are devoid of religion.
Tchaikovsky has delightful works. Beethoven also has less good works, but the public will always glorify everything composed by Beethoven, they will bring him praise from a preconceived idea. The portrait of me together with Sofia Andreevna painted by Repin is absurd to the point of being ridiculous, but it is a Repin and everyone will declare themselves ecstatic in front of him.