Quotes from Nikolai Gogol

And for long years to come I am destined by some strange fate to walk hand in hand with my odd heroes, to gaze at life in its vast movement, to gaze upon it through laughter seen by the world and tears unseen and unknown by it!

I really don't know," the old lady brought out hesitatingly, "you see I've never sold the dead before.

My heart is beating as though it were waiting for something.

Gradually, therefore, Tientietnikov grew more at home in the Service. Yet never did it become, for him, the main pursuit, the main object in life, which he had expected. No, it remained but one of a secondary kind. That is to say, it served merely to divide up his time, and enable him the more to value his hours of leisure.

Emotion has become a disease with you," said Platon. "You seek your own troubles, and make your own anxieties.

You have no love for the good, then force yourself to do good, without any love for it. That will be counted an even greater merit for you than for one who does good for the love of it. Simply force yourself a few times then the love will come to you as well. Believe me, everything can be done.

but what he liked above everything else was a cheque. "It is a thing," he used to say, "to which it is not easy to find an equivalent; it requires no food, it does not take up much room, it stays in one's pocket, and if it falls, it is not broken.

Ke?ke hiç olmasayd?n ?u dünyada, ke?ke sana hiç rastlamasayd?m, ke?ke canl? bir varl?k olacak yerde esinli bir ressam?n yaratt??? bir tablo olsayd?n. O zaman resminin önünden hiç ayr?lmaz, sonsuzcas?na sana bakard?m... öper, öperdim seni. Sonsuz güzel bir dü? gibi seni ya?ar, seni solur ve... mutlu olurdum.

You are on the proper road for Manilovka, but ZAmanilovka - well, there is no such place. The house you mean is called Manilovka because Manilovka is its name; but no house at all is called ZAmanilovka. The house you mean stands there, on that hill, and is a stone house in which a gentleman lives, and its name is Manilovka; but ZAmanilovka does not stand herabouts, nor ever has stood." hahahaha

The "laughter through tears of sorrow" that Pushkin noted elsewhere in his work is precisely laughter. The images it produces are too deeply ambiguous to bear any social message.

In the old man's face there was nothing very special - save that the chin was so greatly projected that whenever he spoke he was forced to wipe it with a handkerchief to avoid dribbling.

I shall think soon that what people say is true: every woman is possessed by her own peculiar devil of curiosity

In this world, people always find a way of doing what they want

Despair at not reaching ideal perfection are among the reasons given. Again it is said.

Wonderful, darling Oksana, allow me to kiss you!" the encouraged blacksmith said and pressed her to him with the intention of snatching a kiss; but Oksana withdrew her cheeks, which were a very short distance from the blacksmith's lips, and pushed him away. "What more do you want? He's got honey and asks for a spoon! Go away, your hands are harder than iron. And you smell of smoke. I suppose you've made me all sooty.

Así desapareció un ser humano que nunca tuvo quién lo amparara, a quien nadie había querido y que jamás interesó a nadie

So," went on Chichikov, "if no obstacle stands in the way, we might as well proceed to the completion of the purchase." "What? Of the purchase of the dead souls?" "Of the 'dead' souls? Oh dear no! Let us write them down as LIVING ones, seeing that that is how they figure in the census returns.

But, in accordance with the primitive arrangement of things, the most trifling causes produce the greatest events, and the grandest undertakings end in the most insignificant results.

By God, the point of the thing is not in this property, which can be confiscated, but in that which no one can steal and carry off! ... Forget this noisy world and all its seductive fancies; let it forget you, too. There is no peace in it. You see: everything in it is either an enemy, a tempter, or a traitor.

Oh long-drawn highway, how excellent you are! How often have I in weariness and despondency set forth upon your length, and found in you salvation and rest! How often, as I followed your leading, have I been visited with wonderful thoughts and poetic dreams and curious, wild impressions!

How strangely are things compounded! In a trice may joy turn to sorrow, should one halt long enough over it: in a trice only God can say what ideas may strike one.

Because I cannot sleep. A pain has taken me in my middle, and my legs, from the ankles upwards, are aching as though they were broken." "That will pass, that will pass, good mother. You must pay no attention to it." "God grant that it MAY pass. However, I have been rubbing myself with lard and turpentine. What sort of tea will you take? In this jar I have some of the scented kind.

Our country is the one our soul longs for, the one which is dearest of all to us. My country is—you! That is my native land, and I bear that country in my heart.

He granted its due share to everything equally, drawing from everything only what was beautiful in it, and in the end left himself only the divine Raphael as a teacher. So a great poetic artist, having read many different writings filled with much delight and majestic beauty, in the end might leave himself, as his daily reading, only Homer's Iliad , having discovered that there is nothing that has not already been reflected in its profound and great perfection.