Ivan Turgenev

"The heart of another is a dark forest."

"We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts."

"A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food."

"If we wait for the moment when everything is ready, we shall never begin."

"The basis of the first year of intimate married life is simply imagination."

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and to preserve oneself, but not further."

"In our time, the curse is not life itself, but the absence of life."

"I share no common bond with the lazy that vegetate and not live."

"The greatest virtue is to speak the truth, and to act without regard to consequences."

"Belief is a great leveller. As soon as you have faith, you are equal to anybody."

"Do you know what's wonderful? To say new things, is that not wonderful?"

"A man of no conversation should smoke."

"Take the art of living; it is as difficult as any art."

"Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women."

"A picture is a poem without words."

"The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby."

"Even the most insignificant person can influence the future."

"Love, as it exists in society, is merely the exchange of two fantasies."

"One's own painful past is a goldmine for the novelist."

"To demand guarantees that nothing bad will happen is to misunderstand the conditions of earthly existence."

"Absence diminishes small passions and increases great ones."

"The one who is prudent may be cold, but they are never wretched."

"Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely enclosed and preserved."

"Whatever happens, we should always drink coffee."

"Talent is a matter of luck; character is not."

"The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the pinnacle of greatness, the stronger the opposition."

"Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly things."

"In order to understand a poet one must first understand the times in which he lived."

"Knowledge itself is no guarantee of wisdom."

"A person is not necessarily born with courage, but is born with potential."