Quotes by Ivan Turgenev

However much you knock at nature's door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.
– Ivan Turgenev
I agree with no one's opinion. I have some of my own.
– Ivan Turgenev
Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
– Ivan Turgenev
Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly.
– Ivan Turgenev
Women... can't live with 'em... can't shoot 'em.
– Ivan Turgenev
You may live a long while with some people and be on friendly terms with them and never speak openly with them from your soul.
– Ivan Turgenev
Who among us has the strength to oppose petty egoism, those petty good feelings, pity and remorse?
– Ivan Turgenev
To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
– Ivan Turgenev
Nature creates while destroying, and doesn't care whether it creates or destroys as long as life isn't extinguished, as long as death doesn't lose its rights.
– Ivan Turgenev
In the end, nature is inexorable: it has no reason to hurry and, sooner or later, it takes what belongs to it. Unconsciously and inflexibly obedient to its own laws, it doesn't know art, just as it doesn't know freedom, just as it doesn't know goodness.
– Ivan Turgenev
In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my country's fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language!
– Ivan Turgenev
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
– Ivan Turgenev