15 MOST famous quotes by Russian writers
These phrases are used so often in colloquial speech that not everyone remembers the original source.
- “Beauty will save the world.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky, ‘The Idiot’)
- “If you want to triumph over the whole world, triumph over yourself.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky, ‘The Possessed’)
- “All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Leo Tolstoy, ‘Anna Karenina’)
- “With womankind, the less we love them, the easier they become to charm.” (Alexander Pushkin, ‘Eugene Onegin’)
- “A man who's active and incisive can yet keep nail care much in mind.” (Alexander Pushkin, ‘Eugene Onegin’)
- “Genius and villainy – Two things incompatible.” (Alexander Pushkin, ‘Mozart and Salieri’)
- “A human being should be entirely beautiful: the face, the clothes, the mind, the thoughts.” (Anton Chekhov, ‘Uncle Vanya’)
- “Brevity is the sister of talent.” (Anton Chekhov, from a letter to his brother)
- “The vicious tongues, they are more frightening than a pistol shot.” (Alexander Griboyedov, ‘Woe from Wit’)
- “Happiness takes no account of time.” (Alexander Griboyedov, ‘Woe from Wit’)
- “I'd love to serve. Servility is what I hate.” (Alexander Griboyedov, ‘Woe from Wit’)
- “Love us dirty, for any one will love us clean.” (Nikolai Gogol, ‘Dead Souls, part II’)
- “Who would grasp Russia with the mind?” (Fyodor Tyutchev. A poem with the same name)
- “Ruin is not caused by lavatories, but it's something that starts in people's heads.” (Mikhail Bulgakov ‘The Heart of a Dog’)
- “Manuscripts don’t burn!” (Mikhail Bulgakov ‘The Master and Margarita’)
