Aleksandr (Alexander Pushkin) Pushkin quotes

" The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths. " # Truth # Love # Illusion

" Upon the brink of the wild stream He stood, and dreamt a mighty dream. " # Dreams # Friends and Friendship # Books - Reading

" And thus He mused: "From here, indeed Shall we strike terror in the Swede? And here a city by our labor Founded, shall gall our haughty neighbor; "Here cut" - so Nature gives command - Your window through on Europe; stand Firm-footed by the sea, unchanging! " # Cities and City Life # Books - Reading # Neighbors

" ‘Tis time, my friend, ‘tis time! For rest the heart is aching; Days follow days in flight, and every day is taking Fragments of being, while together you and I Make plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die. " # Friends and Friendship # Death and Dying # Life and Living

" When the loud day for men who sow and reap Grows still, and on the silence of the town The insubstantial veils of night and sleep, The meed of the day's labour, settle down, Then for me in the stillness of the night The wasting, watchful hours drag on their course, And in the idle darkness comes the bite Of all the burning serpents of remorse; Dreams seethe; and fretful infelicities Are swarming in my over-burdened soul, And Memory before my wakeful eyes With noiseless hand unwinds her lengthy scroll. Then, as with loathing I peruse the years, I tremble, and I curse my natal day, Wail bitterly, and bitterly shed tears, But cannot wash the woeful script away. " # Books - Reading # Love # Death and Dying

" But, as it is, this pied collection begs your indulgence — it's been spun from threads both sad and humoristic, themes popular or idealistic, products of carefree hours, of fun, of sleeplessness, faint inspirations, of powers unripe, or on the wane, of reason's icy intimations, and records of a heart in pain. " # Humor # Ideals and Idealism # Love

" There yet remains but one concluding tale, And then this chronicle of mine is ended— Fulfilled, the duty God ordained to me, A sinner. Not without purpose did the Lord Put me to witness much for many years And educate me in the love of books. One day some indefatigable monk Will find my conscientious, unsigned work; Like me, he will light up his ikon-lamp And, shaking from the scroll the age-old dust, He will transcribe these tales in all their truth. " # Psychoanalysis # Books - Reading # Age and Aging

" Unforced, as conversation passed, he had the talent of saluting felicitously every theme, of listening like a judge-supreme while serious topics were disputing, or, with an epigram-surprise, of kindling smiles in ladies' eyes. " # Silence # Aphorisms and Epigrams # Conversation

" Always contented with his life, and with his dinner, and his wife. " # Marriage # Contentment # Food and Eating

" A man who's active and incisive can yet keep nail-care much in mind: why fight what's known to be decisive? custom is despot of mankind. " # Doctors # Despotism # Decisions