Maxim Gorky

"Art should refuse to sanction any longer the disorder, the injustice that reigns."

"The most terrible thing about materialism is not that it makes men unhappy, but that it makes them small."

"I am convinced that materialism, as the basis of historical development, does not exclude the spiritual strivings of mankind."

"Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravity."

"Man has the irrepressible urge to create beauty."

"The fear of offending has prevented many of the greatest truths from being uttered."

"Real strength lies in knowing how to wait."

"If you want to be happy, make others happy."

"A man without dreams is a man who has lost his will to live."

"The measure of man is what he does with power."

"In every country where man is free to think and to speak, differences of opinion will arise."

"Time is the most valuable thing you can spend, because once spent, you cannot get it back."

"The beauty of nature reveals itself most clearly in times of simplicity."

"I have always thought that a man dies badly only when death is forced upon him by disease or violence, when it is imposed by fate against his will."

"Great souls create voids that can only be partially filled by the achievements of ordinary minds."

"The principal cause of unhappiness is the lack of something to do."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to preserve oneself, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

"I declare that the world would be better off with unlimited sexual freedom."

"The deepest root of faith is gratitude."

"A writer must be brave in spirit to face the truth of existence."

"The only real difference between men is that some are more sensible than others."

"In my belief, nothing that is beautiful in reality is ever a source of unhappiness."

"The goal of fiction should be to illuminate the human condition in ways that statistics cannot."

"One should accept traditions but modify them according to one's time."

"The worker is entitled to his security in old age and his independence."

"Adventure is a path to self-discovery."

"Without struggle, there is no progress."

"The man of culture is a man of peace."

"In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place."

"Science without conscience destroys the soul."