Quotes from Mikhail Lermontov

no good ever comes of a man who forgets an old friend

J'ai, outre celle-là, une autre conviction, à savoir qu'un soir maudit, j'eus le malheur de naître.

Of two friends one is always the slave of the other, though often neither will admit it.

en güzel hislerimi alay edilmekten korkarak, içimin derinliklerinde saklad?m: Onlar da orada öldü. DoÄŸruyu söylüyordum, bana inanm?yorlard?: Aldatmaya baÅŸlad?m.

If I had even been his friend, well and good: the artful indiscretion of the true friend is intelligible to everybody; but I only saw Pechorin once in my life—on the high-road—and, consequently, I cannot cherish towards him that inexplicable hatred, which, hiding its face under the mask of friendship, awaits but the death or misfortune of the beloved object to burst over its head in a storm of reproaches, admonitions, scoffs and regrets.

Love's swooning and love's agitation- for the first time the Demon now experienced them; in shock and shiver he thinks of fleeing - but no quiver stirs in his wing! from his dimmed brow a heavy teardrop, a slow river... what a marvel! till today, quite near that cell, there stands in wondrous fashion a stone scorched by a tear of passion, burnt through by an inhuman tear!...

And this time with ardent lips so lightly grazing he kissed her trembling mouth, and then answered her pleas, in language dazing with sweet temptation; once again those mighty eyes were fixed and gazing deep into hers. He set her blazing. He gleamed above her like a spark or like a knife that finds its mark.

Tell me, does it amuse you very much to torture me? I ought to hate you. since I've known you, you've brought me nothing but suffering me.. Her voice trembled, she leaned towards head upon my breast. Perhaps that's why you loved me, I thought. Moments of happiness one forgets, but sorrow never.

In Russia a straight nose is rarer than a small foot.

The history of a man's soul, even the pettiest soul, is hardly less interesting and useful than the history of a whole people; especially when the former is the result of the observations of a mature mind upon itself, and has been written without any egoistical desire of arousing sympathy or astonishment

for I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. They amuse me and quicken my pulse. To be always on one's guard, to catch every look and the significance of every word, to guess intentions, foil conspiracies, pretend to be deceived and then to overthrow with one blow the whole vast edifice of artifices and designs raised with so much effort - that is what I call life.

Les joies s'oublient, les peines jamais

On a Bare Hill's Top... On a bare hill's top, in the North, wild and cold, A lone pine-tree somewhere stands; She dozes, swaying, all covered by snow With a mantel from feet to a head. She sees in her dreams: in a faraway desert, In lands where the sun enters skies, Alone and sad, on a rock's sunburnt lather, A beautiful palm-tree abides.

Mais moi, je te le jure, en entendant ta voix, j'éprouve une félicité si profonde, si étrange, que les baisers les plus ardents ne pourraient la remplacer.

I'm not certain whether I now believe in predestination or not, but that night I firmly believed in it. The proof had been striking, and regardless of the fact that I had ridiculed our forebears and their complacent astrology, I found myself thinking as they did--but I caught myself in time on this dangerous road, and having made it a rule never to reject anything categorically and never to believe in anything blindly, I cast metaphysics aside and began to watch the ground under my feet.

Many rare beauties live under our skies, And bright shine the stars in the dark of their eyes. Their love is as sweet as a pleasure can be- But a youth ever longs for a life that is free. Money will buy any number of wives, But a fiery horse is beyond any price. Fast as the wind he will bear you away, Never deceive you, and never betray.

although there is the hope that the old illusions will be replaced by new ones, none the less evanescent, but, on the other hand, none the less sweet.

Women only love men they don't know.

How many people, in the beginning of life, think they will finish it as Alexander the Great or Lord Byron, and instead, retain for the whole of their existence, the rank of titulary counsellor?

I learned not long ago that Pechorin had died upon returning from Persia. This news made me very glad: it gave me the right to publish these notes, and I took the opportunity to put my name on someone else's work.

Je porte en moi une âme corrompue par le monde, une imagination inquiète, un cÅ"ur insatiable; pour moi tout est petit : je m'habitue au chagrin aussi facilement qu'au plaisir, et ma vie devient plus vaine de jour en jour.

And how often is a deception of the senses or an error of the reason accepted as a conviction!...

A stranger, mute, through mists that curled, in beauty clad not of this world, came to her, leaned above her pillow; and in his glance was such a billow, of love and grief, that you'd infer all his compassion was for her.

Am o pasiune înn?scut? de-a contrazice.Toat? viaÅ£a mea nu a fost decât un lanÅ£ de triste ÅŸi nenorocite contraziceri fa?? de ceea ce-mi spunea inima ÅŸi mintea.PrezenÅ£a unui entuziast m? umple de o r?ceal?,de un ger al bobotezei ÅŸi cred c? prietenia cu un om molatic ÅŸi flegmatic m-ar face s? ajung un vis?tor pasionat.