We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we’re barely past childhood, we set to work to cultivate them, those unfortunate personalities. Ivan Turgenev
To desire and expect nothing for oneself – and to have profound sympathy for others – is genuine holiness. Ivan Turgenev
A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves – in full bloom or as they fade away. Ivan Turgenev
As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there’s no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better – but you keep working anyway. Ivan Turgenev
Death’s an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew. Ivan Turgenev
Sternly, remorselessly, fate guides each of us; only at the beginning, when we’re absorbed in details, in all sorts of nonsense, in ourselves, are we unaware of its harsh hand. Ivan Turgenev
Whatever a person may pray for, that person prays for a miracle. Every prayer comes down to this: Almighty God, grant that two times two not equal four. Ivan Turgenev
The word ‘tomorrow’ was invented for indecisive people and for children. Ivan Turgenev