Ivan Turgenev

"Time strips away illusions; only truth remains."

"A wife is not a guitar; you cannot tell her mood by looking at her."

"In literature one must have the courage to offend."

"Success is reserved for those who are bold enough to take risks."

"I believe in nothing and disbelieve in nothing."

"The heart knows reasons that reason knows nothing of."

"Talent is everything; birth and patronage are nothing."

"One must be just before one can be generous."

"A man's worth cannot be measured by the house in which he lives."

"Inertia is the tragedy of the timid."

"To change one's opinions is to exchange enslaved thoughts for free ones."

"A writer must feel everything intensely."

"The man who doubts everything is but half a man."

"Beauty fades, but intellect endures."

"Those who despise beauty are blind."

"One must learn to live with uncertainty."

"The secret of good writing is saying the right thing at the right time."

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud."

"The foundation of any nation is the education of its youth."

"Hope is the last thing to die in man's breast."

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

"A man can be conquered by force, but never by words."

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."

"Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing."

"To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything."

"If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will find it nowhere else."

"An old man is twice a child."

"The world is evil, but you must not cease to do good."

"Whatever you do, do it well."

"To be free, one must first understand one's chains."