265 Quotes by Ivan Turgenev

Traces of human life vanish very quickly: Glafira Petrovna's estate had not yet gone wild, but it seemed already to have sunk into that quiet repose which possesses everything on earth wherever there is no restless human infection to affect it.

Sentimental outbreaks are like liquorice; when first you suck it, it's not bad, but afterwards it leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.

that's all the stars do, look at lovers – that's why they're so beautiful

The appearance of mediocrity is often useful in life because it weakens tautly strung strings and sobers up people’s self-confident or self-forgetful feelings, reminding them how close they are to mediocrity as well.

A man's capable of understanding anything - how the ether vibrates, and what's going on in the sun - but how any other man can blow his nose differently from him, that he's incapable of understanding.

I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.

He has no faith in principles, only in frogs.

In his heart he was highly delighted with his friend's suggestion, but he thought it a duty to conceal his feeling. He was not a nihilist for nothing!

Nature's not a temple, but a workshop, and man's the workman in it.