I still lack a political, religious and philosophical world view – I change it every month – and so I’ll have to limit myself to descriptions of how my heroes love, marry, give birth, die, and how they speak.
An artist’s flair is sometimes worth a scientist’s brains.
You will not become a saint through other people’s sins.
The more cultured a man, the less fortunate he is.
Man will become better when you show him what he is like.
Our pride and self-importance are European, while our development and actions are Asiatic.
One can only call that youth healthful which refuses to be reconciled to old ways and which, foolishly or shrewdly, combats the old. This is nature’s charge and all progress hinges upon it.
You are right to demand that an artist engage his work consciously, but you confuse two different things: solving the problem and correctly posing the question.
You look at any poetic creature: muslin, ether, demigoddess, millions of delights; then you look into the soul and find the most ordinary crocodile!
Moscow is a city that has much suffering ahead of it.
Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at all.
I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.
Can words such as Orthodox, Jew, or Catholic really express some sort of exclusive personal virtues or merits?
It’s worth living abroad to study up on genteel and delicate manners. The maid smiles continuously; she smiles like a duchess on a stage, while at the same time it is clear from her face that she is exhausted from overwork.
A grimy fly can soil the entire wall and a small, dirty little act can ruin the entire proceedings.
In one-act pieces there should be only rubbish that is their strength.
There is something beautiful, touching and poetic when one person loves more than the other, and the other is indifferent.
Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is.
Probably nature itself gave man the ability to lie so that in difficult and tense moments he could protect his nest, just as do the vixen and wild duck.
That can not possibly be, because it could never possibly be.