19 Quotes by Ivan Goncharov

Do you think that to express ideas one doesn't need a heart? One does need it - they are rendered fruitful by love; stretch out a helping hand to the fallen man to raise him, or shed bitter tears over him, if he faces ruin, but do not jeer at him. Love him, remember that he is a man like you, and deal with him as if he were yourself.

Memories are either the greatest poetry, when they are memories of a vital happiness, or a burning pain, when they touch dried wounds.p. 479

The moments of nature's universal, triumphant silence had come, those minutes when the creative mind works harder, poetic thoughts seethe more ardently, the heart's passion blazes more brightly and its longing aches more painfully, the grain of criminal thought ripens in a cruel soul more imperturbably and powerfully.

When you don't know what you're living for, you don't care how you live from one day to the next. You're happy the day has passed and the night has come, and in your sleep you bury the tedious question of what you lived for that day and what you're going to live for tomorrow.

When all the forces in your organism come into play, then life will begin to play around you as well. You'll see what your eyes are closed to now, and you'll hear what you've never heard. The music of your nerves will begin to play, you'll hear the music of the spheres, and you'll listen to the grass grow. Just wait, there's no hurry. It will come in its own time!p. 257

— Écrivez tout de suite.— Tout de suite ! Tout de suite ! Comme si je n’avais pas d’affaires plus importantes à régler ! Et puis regarde, il n’y a plus d’encre là-dedans dit Oblomov, tournant sa plume sèche dans l’encrier vide. Alors, comment veux-tu que j’écrive ? […] Il semble bien qu’il n’y ait même pas de papier ! se dit-il, fouillant dans le tiroir et tâtant des objets posés sur la table. Non décidément, il n’y en a pas. Ah, c’est parfait, parfait !

Life is duty and obligation, therefore love, too, is a duty. It's as if God sent it to me,' she said, looking up at the sky, 'and told me to love.'p. 265

Love was life's hardest school of all.

Yes, and I think I will have enough strength to live and love my whole life through. One without the other is impossible.p. 265