Quotes from Nikolai Gogol

Therefore, if it really be that you have no genuine love for doing good, do good by forcing yourself to do so.

In a certain Russian ministerial department—— But it is perhaps better that I do not mention which department it was. There are in the whole of Russia no persons more sensitive than Government officials. Each of them believes if he is annoyed in any way, that the whole official class is insulted in his person.

Our ranks and estates are so irritated these days that they take personally whatever appears in printed books: such, evidently, is the mood in the air. It is enough simply to say that there is a stupid man in a certain town, and it already becomes personal; suddenly a gentleman of respectable appearance pops up and shouts: "But I, too, am a man, which means that I, too, am stupid"—in short, he instantly grasps the situation.

For the rest, he was large and good-natured, and had a habit of amusing himself with occasional spells of knitting.

In the department of--but it is better not to mention the department. There is nothing more irritable than departments, regiments, courts of justice, and, in a word, every branch of public service.

nature loves patience,

They christened the child, whereat he wept and made a grimace, as though he foresaw that he was to be a titular councillor. In

You have to read many books to realize how little you know.

the ladies of N. were pre-eminently careful and refined in their choice of words and phrases. Never did a lady say, "I blew my nose," or "I perspired," or "I spat." No, it had to be, "I relieved my nose through the expedient of wiping it with my handkerchief," and so forth.

Also, the reader will be pleased to know that our hero changed his linen every other day, and in summer, when the weather was very hot, EVERY day, seeing that the very faintest suspicion of an unpleasant odour offended his fastidiousness.

What the . . . Look, Panas, the moon's gone." "So it is," kum agreed phlegmatically. "Right, and you just accept it, like that's the way it should be?" "Well, what else can I do about it?" "What devil has done this to the moon, I want to know? May he never have a shot of vodka in the morning,

The gentleman also made searching inquiries concerning the hygienic condition of the countryside. Was there, he asked, much sickness about — whether sporadic fever, fatal forms of ague, smallpox, or what not? Yet, though his solicitude concerning these matters showed more than ordinary curiosity, his bearing retained its gravity unimpaired, and from time to time he blew his nose with portentous fervour.

Thereafter the host took his guests to look at a young wolf which he had got tied to a chain. "He is fed on nothing but raw meat," he explained, "for I want him to grow up as fierce as possible." Then the party inspected a pond in which there were "fish of such a size that it would take two men all their time to lift one of them out." This piece of information was received with renewed incredulity on the part of the brother-in-law.

Dreadful and fearsome is the old age which will come, for it gives nothing back, nothing in return!

Always a friend or a comrade may fail you, and be the first to desert you in a time of adversity; but never will a KOPECK fail you, whatever may be your plight.

Look what shoes I brought you---the empress herself wore them." "No, no, I don't need any shoes..." and she blushed deeply.

Yes, it isn't long since I purchased it," said Nozdrev. "How long?" "How long? Why, I purchased it three days ago, and gave a pretty sum for it, as the devil knows!" "Indeed? Why, three days ago you were at the fair?" "Wiseacre! Cannot one be at a fair and buy land at the same time? Yes, I WAS at the fair, and my steward bought the land in my absence.

Yet the important person, perfectly satisfied, incidentally, with domestic family tendernesses, found it suitable to have a lady for friendly relations in another part of the city. This lady friend was no whit better or younger than his wife; but there exist such riddles in the world, and it is not our business to judge of them.

Yes, and that is what can be done by SIMPLE methods. But nowadays every one is a mechanic, and wants to open that money chest with an instrument instead of simply. For that purpose he hies him to England. Yes, THAT is the thing to do. What folly!" Kostanzhoglo spat and added: "Yet when he returns from abroad he is a hundred times more ignorant than when he went.

Fear is more contagious than the plague and is instantly communicated.

in short, I sensed in myself those strange feelings that come over us when for the first time we enter the dwelling of a widower whom we had known before inseparable from his lifelong companion. These feelings are like seeing before us a man we had always known in good health, now lacking a leg.

Ihm gefiel nicht das, was er las, sondern eher das Lesen an sich, oder besser gesagt, der Prozess des Lesens selbst, wo sich da doch immerzu aus den Buchstaben irgendein Wort ergibt, das manchmal weiß der Teufel was bedeutet. Dieses Lesen wurde gemeinhin im Vorraum auf dem Bett im liegenden Zustand vollzogen, auf der Matratze, die infolge dieses Umstands so hart und fest wie ein Fladen geworden war.

Jamais la pitié ne s'empare aussi fortement de nous qu'au spectacle de la beauté atteinte par le souffle délétère de la débauche.

Be quiet, Afanasii Ivanovich," said Pulcheria Ivanovna: "you just like to talk, and that's all. A dog is not clean; a dog soils things, and breaks everything: but the cat is a peaceable beast; she does no harm to any one.