At parting, no tears were shed from the parents' eyes; half a copper was given for expenses and delicacies and, what is much more important, a smart instruction: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then, even though you don’t have time in science and God hasn’t given you talent, you will put everything into action and get ahead of everyone. Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good; and if it comes to that, then hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion they can be useful to you. Don’t treat or treat anyone, but behave better so that you will be treated, and most of all, take care and save a penny, this thing is more reliable than anything in the world. A comrade or friend will deceive you and in trouble will be the first to betray you, but a penny will not betray you, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything and you will lose everything in the world with a penny.”<…>
Pavlusha started going to classes the next day. He did not appear to have any special abilities for any science; He distinguished himself more by his diligence and neatness; but on the other hand, he turned out to have a great mind on the other side, on the practical side. He suddenly realized and understood the matter and behaved towards his comrades in exactly the same way: they treated him, and he not only never, but sometimes even hid the received treat and then sold it to them. Even as a child, he already knew how to deny himself everything. Of the half-ruble given by his father, he did not spend a penny; on the contrary, in the same year he already made additions to it, showing almost extraordinary resourcefulness: he molded a bullfinch from wax, painted it and sold it very profitably. Then, for some time, he embarked on other speculations, namely this: having bought food at the market, he sat in the classroom next to those who were richer, and as soon as he noticed that a friend was starting to feel sick - a sign of approaching hunger - he stuck his hand out to him. under the benches, as if by chance, a corner of a gingerbread or a bun and, having provoked him, he took the money, depending on his appetite. For two months he fussed around in his apartment without rest around a mouse, which he had put in a small wooden cage, and finally achieved the point that the mouse stood on its hind legs, lay down and stood up according to orders, and then sold it also very profitably. When he had enough money to reach five rubles, he sewed up the bag and began saving it in another. In relation to his superiors, he behaved even smarter. No one knew how to sit on a bench so quietly. It should be noted that the teacher was a great lover of silence and good behavior and could not stand smart and sharp boys; it seemed to him that they must certainly laugh at him. It was enough for the one who was reprimanded for his wit, it was enough for him to just move or somehow inadvertently wink his eyebrow to suddenly fall under anger. He persecuted him and punished him mercilessly. “I, brother, will drive arrogance and disobedience out of you! - he said. - I know you through and through, just as you don’t know yourself. Here you are, standing on my knees! I’ll make you go hungry!” And the poor boy, without knowing why, rubbed his knees and went hungry for days. “Abilities and gifts? “It’s all nonsense,” he used to say, “I only look at behavior.” I will give full marks in all sciences to someone who doesn’t know the basics but behaves commendably; and in whom I see a bad spirit and mockery, I am zero to him, although he put Solon in his belt! So said the teacher, who did not love Krylov to death because he said: “For me, it’s better to drink, but understand the matter,” and always told with pleasure in his face and eyes, as in the school where he taught before, There was such silence that you could hear a fly flying; that not a single student coughed or blew his nose in class all year round, and that until the bell rang it was impossible to know whether anyone was there or not.
Quotes from the poem “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; the author himself designated the genre of this work as a poem. Originally conceived as a three-volume work. The first volume was published in 1842. The almost written second volume was destroyed by the writer, but several chapters were preserved in drafts. The third volume was conceived, but not started, only some information about it remained.
- And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast?
- I know them all: they are all scammers; the whole city is like this: a swindler sits on a swindler and drives the swindler around. All sellers of Christ. There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.
- ...a Russian person, in decisive moments, will find something to do without going into long-range reasoning...
- Eh, Russian people! He doesn't like to die his own death!
- ... people are not frivolously insightful, and a person in a different caftan seems to them to be a different person.
- Nonsense, rubbish, soft-boiled boots!
- ... Such is the Russian man: a strong passion to become arrogant with someone who would be at least one rank higher than him, and a casual acquaintance with a count or prince is better for him than any close friendly relations.
- Such is the Russian man: a strong passion to become arrogant with someone who is at least one rank higher than him, and a casual acquaintance with a count or prince is better for him than any close friendly relationship.
- ...Chichikov “I admit, I like the police chief more than anyone else. Some sort of direct, open character; you can see something simple-hearted in his face.”
- Through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears.
- "Scammer!" Sobakevich said very calmly: “He will sell, deceive, and even have lunch with you!”
- Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good; and if it comes to that, then hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion they can be useful to you. Don’t treat or treat anyone, but behave better so that you will be treated, and most of all, take care and save a penny, this thing is more reliable than anything in the world. A comrade or friend will deceive you and in trouble will be the first to betray you, but a penny will not betray you, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything and you will lose everything in the world with a penny.”
- And what, if only you knew, the red tape of Kuvshinnikov! He and I went to almost all the balls. One was so overdressed, there were ruffles on her, and truffles, and God knows what was missing... I just thought to myself: “Damn it!” And Kuvshinnikov, that is, she is such a beast, sat down next to her and in French gave her such compliments... Would you believe it, he didn’t let simple women pass by. He calls this: taking advantage of the strawberry.
- Rus! Rus! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance.
- Countless, like the sands of the sea, are human passions, and all are different from one another, and all of them, low and beautiful, are at first submissive to man and then become his terrible rulers.
- What is accurately spoken is the same as what is written; it cannot be cut down with an axe. And how accurate is everything that came out of the depths of Rus', where there are no Germans, no Chukhons, or any other tribes, and everything is a nugget itself, a lively and lively Russian mind that does not reach into its pocket for a word, does not hatch it , like a mother hen chicks, but it sticks right away, like a passport on an eternal sock, and there is nothing to add later, what kind of nose or lips you have - you are outlined from head to toe with one line!
- In the chaise sat a gentleman, not handsome, but not bad-looking either, neither too fat nor too thin; One cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young.
- Really, my father, it has never happened before that dead people were sold to me.
- In conversations with these rulers, he very skillfully knew how to flatter everyone.
- There were signs almost washed away by the rain with pretzels and boots, in some places with painted blue trousers and the signature of some Arshavian tailor; where is the store with caps, caps and the inscription: “Foreigner Vasily Fedorov”; where there was a drawing of billiards with two players in tailcoats, the kind that guests in our theaters wear when they enter the stage in the last act.
- The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later.
- Love us black, and everyone will love us white.
- Wider and more luxurious than all other paths, it was illuminated by the sun and illuminated by lights all night, but people flowed past it in the deep darkness. And how many times already induced by the meaning descending from heaven, they knew how to recoil and stray to the side, they knew how to find themselves again in impenetrable backwaters in broad daylight, they knew how to again cast a blind fog into each other’s eyes and, trailing after the swamp lights, they knew how to get to the abyss, and then ask each other in horror: where is the exit, where is the road?
- Underneath it all was written: “And here is the establishment.” In some places there were tables with nuts, soap and gingerbread cookies that looked like soap on the street; where is the tavern with a fat fish painted and a fork stuck into it. Most often, the darkened double-headed state eagles were noticeable, which have now been replaced by the laconic inscription: “Drinking house.” The pavement was pretty bad everywhere.
- The Russian people express themselves strongly! And if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to him and his descendants.
- He also looked into the city garden, which consisted of thin trees, badly grown, with supports below, in the form of triangles, very beautifully painted with green oil paint. However, although these trees were no taller than reeds, it was said about them in the newspapers when describing the illumination that “our city was decorated, thanks to the care of the civil ruler, with a garden consisting of shady, wide-branched trees, giving coolness on a hot day,” and that when In this case, “it was very touching to see how the hearts of the citizens trembled in an abundance of gratitude and flowed streams of tears as a sign of gratitude to the mayor.”
- The day, it seems, was concluded with a portion of cold veal, a bottle of sour cabbage soup and a sound sleep for the entire pump, as they say in other parts of the vast Russian state.
- There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.
- If you want to get rich quickly, you will never get rich; if you want to get rich without asking about time, then you will get rich soon.
- But in life everything changes quickly and vividly...
- Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft years of youth into stern, embittered courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!
- Do you really think that I would take money for souls that have in some way ended their existence?
- They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once tensed their copper chests and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into just elongated lines flying through the air, and rushing, all inspired by God!..
- It’s a wonderful thing in the world: what’s funny will instantly turn into sadness if you just stand in front of it for a long time, and then God knows what will pop into your head.
- And in the global chronicle of humanity there are many entire centuries that, it would seem, were crossed out and destroyed as unnecessary. Many mistakes have been made in the world that, it would seem, even a child would not do now. What crooked, deaf, narrow, impassable roads that lead far to the side have been chosen by humanity, striving to achieve eternal truth, while the straight path was open to them, like the path leading to the magnificent temple assigned to the king’s palace!
- The driver is not wearing German boots: he has a beard and mittens, and sits on God knows what; but he stood up, swung, and began to sing - the horses like a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed into one smooth circle, only the road trembled, and a pedestrian who stopped screamed in fear - and there she rushed, rushed, rushed!.. And there you can already see in the distance, like something is gathering dust and drilling into the air.
- And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast? Is it his soul, striving to get dizzy, to go on a spree, to sometimes say: “Damn it all!” - Shouldn’t his soul love her? Isn’t it possible to love her when you hear something enthusiastically wonderful in her?
- Last week my blacksmith burned down; he was such a skilled blacksmith and knew metalworking skills.
- And it turned out to be clear what kind of creature man is: he is wise, intelligent and intelligent in everything that concerns others, and not himself; what prudent, firm advice he will provide in difficult situations in life!
- People are frivolously undiscerning, and a person in a different caftan seems to them to be a different person. "Dead Souls" Nikolai Gogol
- It seems that an unknown force has taken you on its wing, and you yourself are flying, and everything is flying: miles are flying, merchants are flying towards you on the beams of their wagons, a forest is flying on both sides with dark formations of spruces and pines, with a clumsy knock and the cry of a crow, it flies the whole road goes to God knows where into the disappearing distance, and something terrible is contained in this quick flickering, where the disappearing object does not have time to appear - only the sky above your head, and the light clouds, and the rushing month alone seem motionless.
- Whoever you are, my reader, no matter what place you stand, no matter what rank you are in, whether you are respected by a higher rank or a person of a simple class, but if God has taught you to read and write and my book has already fallen into your hands, I ask you help me.
- Just as a countless number of churches, monasteries with domes, domes, and crosses are scattered throughout holy, pious Rus', so a countless number of tribes, generations, and peoples crowd, build, and rush about the face of the earth.
- How can you fight a bull and still not get milk from him?
- No matter how stupid the words of a fool are, sometimes they are enough to confuse an intelligent person.
- When the carriage entered the yard, the gentleman was greeted by the tavern servant, or sex worker, as they are called in Russian taverns, lively and fidgety to such an extent that it was impossible to even see what kind of face he had. He ran out quickly, with a napkin in his hand, all long and in a long jean coat with the back almost at the very back of his head, tossed his hair and quickly led the gentleman up the entire wooden gallery to show the peace bestowed upon him by God.
- Be that as it may, a man's purpose is still undetermined unless he has finally placed his feet firmly on a solid foundation, and not on some free-thinking chimera of youth.
- And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not grabbed by an iron screw, but hastily equipped and assembled alive by an efficient Yaroslavl man with only an ax and a hammer.
- He who is captivated by beauty does not see shortcomings and forgives everything; but whoever is embittered will try to dig out all the rubbish in us and put it out so brightly that you will inevitably see it.
- The players were depicted with their cues aimed, their arms turned slightly backwards and their legs slanted, having just made an entrechat in the air.
- The swindler sits on the swindler and drives the swindler.
- The outer façade of the hotel corresponded to its interior: it was very long, two floors; the lower one was not polished and remained in dark red bricks, even darker from the wild weather changes and rather dirty in themselves; the top one was painted with eternal yellow paint; below there were benches with clamps, ropes and steering wheels.
- And every people, bearing within itself a guarantee of strength, full of the creative abilities of the soul, its bright features and other gifts of God, each in its own way distinguished itself with its own word, with which, expressing any object, it reflects part of its own character in its expression.
- Is it not so for you, Rus', that you are rushing along like a brisk, unstoppable troika? The road beneath you smokes, the bridges rattle, everything falls behind and is left behind. The contemplator, amazed by God's miracle, stopped: was this lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power is contained in these horses, unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses!
- Why depict poverty, and poverty, and the imperfection of our lives?
- No, whoever has a fist will not straighten into a palm.
- Law - I am dumb before the law.
- Nothing could be more pleasant than living in solitude, enjoying the spectacle of nature and sometimes reading a book...
- If a friend invites you to his village fifteen miles away, it means that there are thirty faithful to her.
- Nozdryov ordered to bring a bottle of Madeira, which the field marshal himself never drank better. Madeira, for sure, even burned in the mouth, for the merchants, already knowing the taste of the landowners who loved good Madeira, seasoned it mercilessly with rum, and sometimes poured aqua regia into it, in the hope that Russian stomachs would endure everything.
- The houses had one, two and one and a half floors, with an eternal mezzanine, very beautiful, according to the provincial architects. In some places these houses seemed lost among a street as wide as a field and endless wooden fences; in some places they huddled together, and here the movement of people and liveliness was more noticeable.
- He suddenly realized and understood the matter and behaved towards his comrades in exactly the same way: they treated him, and he not only never, but sometimes even hid the received treat and then sold it to them. Even as a child, he already knew how to deny himself everything. Of the half-ruble given by his father, he did not spend a penny; on the contrary, in the same year he already made additions to it, showing almost extraordinary resourcefulness: he molded a bullfinch from wax, painted it and sold it very profitably.
- Lord God! What an immense distance between the knowledge of light and the ability to use this knowledge!
- Pavlusha started going to classes the next day. He did not appear to have any special abilities for any science; He distinguished himself more by his diligence and neatness; but on the other hand, he turned out to have a great mind on the other side, on the practical side.
- The Russian people express themselves strongly! and if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will drag it with him into service, and into retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world. And no matter how cunningly you then refine your nickname, even if you force the writing people to derive it from an ancient princely family for a hire fee, nothing will help: the nickname will caw for itself at the top of its crow’s throat and say clearly where the bird flew from.
- We all have a small weakness to spare ourselves a little, but let’s try better to find some neighbor on whom to take out our frustration.
- The landowner Manilov, not yet an old man at all, who had eyes as sweet as sugar and squinted them every time he laughed, was crazy about him.
- In the corner of these shops, or, better yet, in the window, there was a whipper with a samovar made of red copper and a face as red as the samovar, so that from a distance one would think that there were two samovars standing on the window, if one samovar was not with a pitch-black beard.
- Then, for some time, he embarked on other speculations, namely this: having bought food at the market, he sat in the classroom next to those who were richer, and as soon as he noticed that a friend was starting to feel sick - a sign of approaching hunger - he stuck his hand out to him. under the benches, as if by chance, a corner of a gingerbread or a bun and, having provoked him, he took the money, depending on his appetite.
- There are many things in nature that are inexplicable even to an extensive mind.
- At parting, no tears were shed from the parents' eyes; half a copper was given for expenses and delicacies and, what is much more important, a smart instruction: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then, even though you don’t have time in science and God hasn’t given you talent, you will put everything into action and get ahead of everyone.
- God provided himself with the work of creation as the highest pleasure, and also demands from man that he be the creator of prosperity and the harmonious flow of affairs.
- The Russian driver has a good instinct instead of eyes; from this it happens that, with his eyes closed, he sometimes pumps with all his might and always arrives somewhere.
- Oh, so you are a buyer! What a pity, really, that I sold honey to merchants so cheaply, but you, my father, would probably have bought it from me.
- Rus', where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.
- “What a quick head! - the crowd shouts. “What an unshakable character!” And if some misfortune happened to this quick head and he himself had to be put in difficult situations in life, where did his character go, the unshakable husband would become completely confused, and he would become a pathetic coward, an insignificant, weak child, or just a fetish, as Nozdryov calls it.
- The word of a Briton will echo with heart knowledge and wise knowledge of life; The short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash and spread like a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own clever and thin word, which is not accessible to everyone; but there is no word that would be so sweeping, that would burst out so smartly from under the very heart, that would seethe and vibrate as well as an aptly spoken Russian word.
- "A! patched, patched!” the man screamed. He also added a noun to the word patched, which is very successful, but not used in social conversation, and therefore we will skip it. However, one can guess that it was expressed very aptly, because Chichikov, although the man had long since disappeared from sight and had traveled a lot ahead, was still grinning while sitting in the chaise.
- Fear is stickier than the plague.
- …Alas! fat people know how to manage their affairs in this world better than thin people. The thin ones serve more on special assignments or are just registered and wander here and there; their existence is somehow too easy, airy and completely unreliable. Fat people never occupy indirect places, but always straight ones, and if they sit somewhere, they will sit securely and firmly, so that the place will sooner crack and bend under them, and they won’t fly off...
The plot of the poem was suggested to Gogol Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin presumably in September 1831. During his exile in Chisinau, the poet was told that in the town of Bendery no one dies. The fact is that at the beginning of the 19th century, quite a lot of peasants from the central provinces of the Russian Empire fled to Bessarabia. The police were obliged to identify fugitives, but often without success - they took the names of the dead. As a result, not a single death was registered in Bendery for several years. An official investigation began, revealing that the names of the dead were given to fugitive peasants who did not have documents.
The first volume of the poem tells the story of the adventures of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikova- a former collegiate adviser posing as a landowner. He arrives in a certain provincial town N, gains the trust of all its inhabitants of any importance, and becomes a welcome guest at balls and dinners. No one has any idea about Chichikov’s true goals - buying up or freely acquiring dead peasants who, according to the census, were still listed as living among local landowners.
Like, Gogol I intended to make the poem three volumes. Work on the second volume was carried out in Germany, France and mainly in Italy. At the end of July 1845, the writer burned the manuscript, because the meaning of the work in his mind grew beyond the boundaries of literary texts. Draft manuscripts of four chapters of the second volume (in incomplete form) were discovered during the opening of the writer’s papers, sealed after his death. International fame "Dead Souls" acquired during the writer’s lifetime.
"Evening" brings to your attention a selection of quotes from the famous work of Russian classical literature.
“He is wise who does not disdain any character, but, fixing an inquiring gaze on it, probes it to its original causes.”
“People are frivolously undiscerning, and a person in a different caftan seems to them a different person.”
“Lord God! What an immense distance between the knowledge of light and the ability to use this knowledge!”
“No matter how stupid the words of a fool are, sometimes they are enough to confuse an intelligent person.”
“Sometimes, really, it seems to me that a Russian person is some kind of lost person. There is no willpower, there is no courage for constancy. You want to do everything - but you can’t do anything. You keep thinking - from tomorrow you will start a new life, from tomorrow days you go on a diet - nothing happened: by the evening of the same day you’ll be so full that you just blink your eyes and your tongue won’t move; you sit like an owl, looking at everyone - that’s right and that’s all.”
“And what kind of Russian doesn’t love driving fast? Is it his soul that wants to get dizzy, go on a spree, and sometimes say: “Damn it all!” - is it his soul not to love her? Is it not to love her when something enthusiastic is heard in her? wonderful? It seems that an unknown force has taken you on its wing, and you yourself are flying, and everything is flying..."
“Countless, like the sands of the sea, are human passions, and all are different from one another, and all of them, low and beautiful, are at first submissive to man and then become his terrible rulers.”
“There is no word that would be so sweeping, that would burst out so smartly from under the very heart, that would boil and vibrate as well as an aptly spoken Russian word.”
“Nozdryov was in some respects a historical person. Not a single meeting where he was present was complete without history.”
“Where is the one who, in the native language of our Russian soul, could tell us this almighty word: FORWARD! who, knowing all the powers and properties, and the whole depth of our nature, with one magical wave could direct the Russian person to a high life? words, with what love a grateful Russian man would pay him. But centuries pass after centuries; half a million Sidneys, bumpkins and boibaks sleep soundly, and rarely is a man born in Rus' who knows how to pronounce it, this almighty word."
“Love us black, and everyone will love us white.”
“It’s a wonderful thing in the world: what’s funny will instantly turn into sadness if you just stand in front of it for a long time, and then God knows what will pop into your head.”
“Such is the Russian man: a strong passion to become arrogant with someone who is at least one rank higher than him, and a casual acquaintance with a count or prince is better for him than any close friendly relations.”
“Everything quickly turns into a person; before you have time to look back, a terrible worm has already grown inside, autocratically turning all the vital juices to itself. And more than once not only a broad passion, but an insignificant passion for something small grew in someone born to the best deeds, forced to forget his great and holy duties and to see the great and holy in insignificant trinkets.”
“Rus', where are you going? Give me an answer. He doesn’t give an answer.”
He who is captivated by beauty does not see shortcomings and forgives everything; but whoever is embittered will try to dig out all the rubbish in us and put it out so brightly that you will inevitably see it.
Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft years of youth into stern, embittered courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!
Be that as it may, a man's purpose is still undetermined unless he has finally placed his feet firmly on a solid foundation, and not on some free-thinking chimera of youth.
Out of ten sides, it is enough to have one stupid one in order to be considered a fool by nine good ones.
The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later.
The Russian people express themselves strongly!
There are people who have a passion to spoil their neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.
Fear is stickier than the plague.
Law - I am dumb before the law.
You must have a love of work. Without this, nothing can be done. You have to love farming, yes! And, believe me, it's not boring at all. They thought that there was melancholy in the village... yes, I would die of melancholy if I spent even one day in the city the way they spend it! The owner has no time to be bored. There is no emptiness in his life - everything is complete.
We all have a small weakness to spare ourselves a little, but let’s try better to find some neighbor on whom to take out our frustration.
I know them all: they are all scammers, the whole city there is like this: the scammer sits on the scammer and drives the scammer.
Everywhere in life, whether among the callous, rough, poor and unkempt and moldy low-lying ranks of it or among the monotonously cold and boringly neat upper classes, everywhere at least once a person will encounter on his way a phenomenon that is not similar to everything that what had happened to him before that would at least once awaken in him a feeling different from those that he was destined to feel all his life.
Sometimes, really, it seems to me that the Russian person is some kind of lost person. There is no willpower, no courage to persist. You want to do everything, but you can’t do anything. You keep thinking - from tomorrow you will start a new life, from tomorrow you will go on a diet - nothing happened: by the evening of the same day you will have eaten so much that you can only blink your eyes and your tongue will not move; you sit like an owl, looking at everyone - really and that’s it.
Last week my blacksmith burned down; he was such a skilled blacksmith and knew metalworking skills.
Rus! Rus! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance.
The word of a Briton will echo with heart knowledge and wise knowledge of life; The short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash and spread like a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own, not accessible to everyone, clever and thin word; but there is no word that would be so sweeping, lively, would burst out from under the very heart, would seethe and vibrate so vividly, like a well-spoken Russian word.
Such is the Russian man: a strong passion to become arrogant with someone who is at least one rank higher than him, and a casual acquaintance with a count or prince is better for him than any close friendly relations.
God alone could have said what Manilov’s character was. There is a kind of people known by the name: so-so people, neither this nor that...
Countless, like the sands of the sea, are human passions, and all are unlike one another, and all of them, low and beautiful, are at first submissive to man and then become his terrible rulers.
***
No, whoever has a fist will not straighten into a palm.
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There are people who have a passion to spoil their neighbor, sometimes for no reason at all.
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Out of ten sides, it is enough to have one stupid side in order to be considered a fool over nine good ones.
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... women, this is such a thing<...>there is simply nothing to say!<...>Their eyes alone are such an endless state into which a man has driven - and remember his name! You can’t get him out of there with any hook or anything.
***
... And there was no room in the church. The mayor came up - it was found. And there was such a crush that there was no room for an apple to fall.
***
Nozdryov was in some respects a historical person. Not a single meeting he attended was complete without a story.
***
But he is wise who does not disdain any character, but, fixing an inquiring gaze on it, probes it to its original causes.
***
You are afraid of a deeply fixed gaze, you are afraid to fix a deep gaze on something, you like to glance at everything with perplexed eyes.
***
Everything about them was somehow callous, uncouth, wrong, worthless, discordant, not good, there was confusion in their heads, turmoil, confusion, untidiness in their thoughts - in a word, this is how the empty nature of a man stood out in everything, a rough, heavy, unattractive nature. capable of neither house-building nor of heartfelt convictions, of little faith, lazy, filled with incessant doubts and eternal fear.
***
It is very dangerous to look deeper into women's hearts. People are frivolously undiscerning, and a person in a different caftan seems to them to be a different person.
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Fear is stickier than the plague.
***
The Russian people express themselves strongly! And if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will drag it with him into service, and into retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world. And no matter how cunning or ennobled your nickname is then, even if you force the writing people to derive it for a hire from the ancient princely family, nothing will help: the nickname will caw for itself at the top of its crow’s throat and say clearly where the bird flew from. What is accurately spoken is the same as what is written; it cannot be cut down with an axe. And how accurate is everything that came out of the depths of Rus', where there are no Germans, no Chukhons, or any other tribes, and everything is a nugget itself, a lively and lively Russian mind that does not reach into its pocket for a word, does not hatch it , like a mother hen chicks, but it sticks right away, like a passport on an eternal sock, and there is nothing to add later, what kind of nose or lips you have - you are outlined with one line from head to toe.
***
Everywhere in life, whether among the callous, rough, poor and unkempt and moldy low-lying ranks of it or among the monotonously cold and boringly neat upper classes, everywhere at least once a person will encounter on his way a phenomenon that is not similar to everything that what had happened to him before that would at least once awaken in him a feeling different from those that he was destined to feel all his life.
***
And in the global chronicle of humanity there are many entire centuries that, it would seem, were crossed out and destroyed as unnecessary. Many mistakes have been made in the world that, it would seem, even a child would not do now. What crooked, deaf, narrow, impassable roads that lead far to the side have been chosen by humanity, striving to achieve eternal truth, while the straight path was open to them, like the path leading to the magnificent temple assigned to the king’s palace!
***
And it turned out to be clear what kind of creature man is: he is wise, intelligent and intelligent in everything that concerns others, and not himself; what prudent, firm advice he will provide in difficult situations in life! “What a quick head! - the crowd shouts. - What an unshakable character! “And if some misfortune happened to this quick head and he himself had to be put in difficult situations in life, where did his character go, the unshakable husband was all at a loss, and he turned out to be a pathetic coward, an insignificant, weak child, or just a fetish, as Nozdryov calls .
***
There are many things in nature that are inexplicable even to an extensive mind.
***
-Where will you live after this? - Platonov asked Khlobuev. - Do you have another village? - Yes, I need to move to the city: I have a little house there. This needs to be done for the children: they will need teachers. Please, here you can still get a teacher of the Law of God; music, dancing - no amount of money can get you in the village. “There is no piece of bread, but he teaches children to dance,” thought Chichikov. - "Strange! “- thought Platonov. “However, we need to spice up the deal with something,” said Khlobuev. - Hey, Kiryushka! Bring me a bottle of champagne, brother. “There is no piece of bread, but there is champagne,” thought Chichikov. - Platonov didn’t know what to think.
***
You must have a love of work. Without this, nothing can be done. You have to love farming, yes! And, believe me, it's not boring at all. They thought that there was melancholy in the village... yes, I would die of melancholy if I spent even one day in the city the way they spend it! The owner has no time to be bored. There is no emptiness in his life - everything is complete.
***
Lord God! What an immense distance between the knowledge of light and the ability to use this knowledge! Love us black, and everyone will love us white.
***
... if a friend invites you to his village fifteen miles away, it means that there are thirty faithful to her.
***
It’s a wonderful thing in the world: what’s funny will instantly turn into sadness if you just stand in front of it for a long time, and then God knows what will pop into your head.
***
The Russian driver has a good instinct instead of eyes; from this it happens that, with his eyes closed, he sometimes pumps with all his might and always arrives somewhere.
***
Rus', where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer.
***
No matter how stupid the words of a fool are, sometimes they are enough to confuse an intelligent person.
***
There is only one decent person there: the prosecutor; and even that one, to tell the truth, is a pig.
***
But in life everything changes quickly and vividly...
***
Sometimes, really, it seems to me that the Russian person is some kind of lost person. There is no willpower, no courage to persist. You want to do everything, but you can’t do anything. You keep thinking - from tomorrow you will start a new life, from tomorrow you will go on a diet - nothing happened: by the evening of the same day you will have eaten so much that you can only blink your eyes and your tongue will not move; you sit like an owl, looking at everyone - really and that’s it.
***
God provided himself with the work of creation as the highest pleasure, and also requires from man that he be the creator of prosperity and the harmonious flow of affairs. - If you want to get rich quickly, you will never get rich; if you want to get rich without asking about time, then you will get rich soon.
***
Where is the one who, in the native language of our Russian soul, would be able to tell us this almighty word: FORWARD! who, knowing all the powers and properties, and all the depth of our nature, with one magical wave could direct a Russian person to a high life? With what words, with what love would a grateful Russian person pay him? But centuries pass after centuries; Half a million Sidneys, bumpkins and boibaks sleep soundly, and rarely is a husband born in Rus' who knows how to pronounce it, this almighty word.
***
And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast? Is it his soul, trying to get dizzy, to go on a spree, to sometimes say: “Damn it all! “Is it his soul not to love her? Isn’t it possible to love her when you hear something enthusiastically wonderful in her? It seems that an unknown force has taken you on its wing, and you are flying, and everything is flying...
***
Countless, like the sands of the sea, are human passions, and all are different from one another, and all of them, low and beautiful, are at first submissive to man and then become his terrible rulers.
***
Everything quickly turns into a person; Before you have time to look back, a terrible worm has already grown inside, autocratically turning all the vital juices to itself. And more than once not only a broad passion, but an insignificant passion for something small grew in one born to the best deeds, forced him to forget great and holy duties and see great and holy things in insignificant trinkets.
***
And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; My eyes lit up with unnatural power: oh! what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus!..
***
The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later.
***
Eh, Russian people! He doesn't like to die his own death!
***
On the road! on the road! away the wrinkle that has appeared on the forehead and the stern gloom of the face! At once and suddenly we will plunge into life with all its silent chatter and bells...
***
The word of a Briton will echo with heart knowledge and wise knowledge of life; The short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash and spread like a light dandy; the German will intricately come up with his own, not accessible to everyone, clever and thin word; but there is no word that would be so sweeping, lively, would burst out from under the very heart, would seethe and vibrate so vividly, like a well-spoken Russian word. Be that as it may, a man's purpose is still undetermined unless he has finally placed his feet firmly on a solid foundation, and not on some free-thinking chimera of youth.
***
Self-sacrifice, generosity in decisive moments, courage, intelligence - and to all this there is a fair mixture of selfishness, ambition, pride, petty personal sensitivity and much of what a person cannot do without.
***
Nothing could be more pleasant than living in solitude, enjoying the spectacle of nature and sometimes reading a book...
***
Such is the Russian man: a strong passion to become arrogant with someone who is at least one rank higher than him, and a casual acquaintance with a count or prince is better for him than any close friendly relations.
***
Do you really think that I would take money for souls that have in some way ended their existence?
***
We all have a small weakness to spare ourselves a little, but let’s try better to find some neighbor on whom to take out our frustration.
***
Go and get along with the man! He doesn’t believe in God, but believes that if the bridge of his nose itches, he will certainly die.
***
Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft years of youth into stern, embittered courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!
***
I know them all: they are all scammers, the whole city there is like this: the scammer sits on the scammer and drives the scammer.
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Plyushkin piled a whole pile in his corner and put it there every day. Chichikov has many positive traits: he is always shaven and smells good. Chichikov rode in a carriage with his backside raised. Gogol's work was characterized by a trinity. He stood with one foot in the past, with the other he stepped into the future, and between his legs
If two people sit down, they can’t row. It takes two people to get in, and then neither stand nor sit down (Krylov). We live in a big corner ourselves, and we rent out the stove and flooring. And the house is small, but it is spacious. It’s not spacious, but it’s courtyard. It's a courtyard, but not spacious. People live in cramped conditions. Where it's cramped, lie down there.
*** What is stronger over us: passion or habit? Or are all the strong impulses, the whole whirlwind of our desires and boiling passions, only a consequence of our bright age and only for that reason do they seem deep and crushing?
*** The government salary is not even enough for tea and sugar. *** There is no person who does not have some sins behind him.
*** It's boring in this world, gentlemen!
*** Oh, how disgusting reality is! Why is she against dreams? *** How strange, how incomprehensibly our fate plays with us! Do we ever get what we want? Are we achieving what our powers seem deliberately prepared for? Everything happens the other way around. Fate gave him the most beautiful
*** Oh, this insidious creature is a woman! I have just now realized what a woman is. Until now, no one has yet found out who she is in love with: I was the first to discover it. A woman is in love with a devil. Yes, not kidding. *** It is already known to the whole world that when England sniffs tobacco, France sneezes.
*** They were smart; how they became smart - no one knew, maybe it was instilled in them from birth as an instinct, or maybe they were able to extract grains of experience and sound judgment from the books that they managed to read, from which not everyone knows how to extract something... or.
*** Lie down and suffer, suffer and get angry - that’s all you’re capable of. *** If you can’t live without the sun... it’s hard to go to lands where it never shines. *** If I am a decent person, it is because decency in itself is good, and not because I will be rewarded for it. *** I do not like
*** The point, my dear, is not in pretense, but in feeling. You men deceive your friend and seem to love him even more because of this; and for us women, a husband becomes hateful from the minute we deceive him. *** How they must have laughed at him if they deceived him from the first day! Is it conceivable
*** Everyone has their own pain thermometer, which measures it in the range from zero to ten. No one will change anything until they reach ten. Nine is not enough. At nine you are still afraid. Only ten can move you, and then you will understand everything. No one will make the decision for you.
*** - I'm used to you. - No. You are simply afraid of loneliness. -What are you afraid of? - Myself. *** - Do you like children? - And you? - You did not answer me. - I will never have them. - You can't have them? - I don’t know anyone who would want to have them from me. *** - Sorry, but I have the impression that
*** Has anyone loved you enough to kill or die for you? *** - Sometimes people hit for no reason. - By the way, she had a reason. - You're talking about this girl, and I'm talking about it. - Yes, I know.
Cynic: a person who says out loud what we think. Pierre Daninos Cynic: a man who, smelling flowers, looks around for a coffin. Henry Louis Mencken Cynic: a man who, at the age of ten, discovered that there is no Santa Claus and cannot come to terms with it. James Gould