942 Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

My God died young. Theolatry i found Degrading, and its premises, unsound. No free man needs God; but was I free?

Occasionally, in the middle of a conversation her name would be mentioned, and she would run down the steps of a chance sentence, without turning her head.

A change of environment is the traditional fallacy upon which doomed loves, and lungs, rely.

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

My loathings are simple. stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.

A good laugh is the best pesticide.

And she was mine, she was mine, the key was in my fist, my fist was in my pocket, she was mine.

The general impression is that fifteen year-old Dolly remains morbidly uninterested in sexual matters, or to be exact, represses her curiosity in order to save her ignorance and self-dignity.

Treading the soil of the moon, palpating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of the event, feeling in the pit of one's stomach the separation from Terra-these form the most romantic sensation an explorer has ever known . . . this is the only thing I can say about the matter. The utilitarian results do not interest me.