Nikolai Gogol quotes - page 2

The sergeant's widow told you a lie when she said I flogged her. I never flogged her. She flogged herself. (Nikolai Gogol)
Dogs are clever fellows; they know all about politics [...]. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Marchember 86. Between day and night. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika? View quote
Nikolai Gogol
The year 2000: April 43rd.-To-day is a day of splendid triumph. Spain has a king; he has been found, and I am he. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
And for a long time yet, led by some wondrous power, I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Russia! Russia! I see you now, from my wondrous, beautiful past I behold you! How wretched, dispersed, and uncomfortable everything is about you... View quote
Nikolai Gogol
The experience of ages has shown that a man who works on the land is purer, nobler, higher, and more moral... Agriculture should be at the basis of everything. That's my idea. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
"Turn around, son! What a funny figure you are! Are those priests' cassocks you are wearing? And do they all go about like that at the academy?" With these words old Bulba greeted his two sons who had been studying at the Kiev college and had come home to their father. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
When the priest went in, he stopped short at the sight of this defamation of God's holy place, and dared not serve the requiem on such a spot. And so the church was left forever, with monsters stuck in the doors and windows, was overgrown with forest trees, roots, rough grass and wild thorns, and no one can now find the way to it. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
...it's not my job to preach a sermon. Art is anyhow a homily. My job is to speak in living images, not in arguments. I must exhibit life full-face, not discuss life. (Nikolai Gogol)
[Women's] boarding schools, as we know, hold the three principal subjects which constitute the basis of human virtue to be the French language (a thing indispensable to the happiness of married life), piano-playing (a thing wherewith to beguile a husband's leisure moments), and that particular department of housewifery which is comprised in the knitting of purses and other "surprises.” Nevertheless changes and improvements have begun to take place, since things now are governed more by the personal inclinations and idiosyncracies of the keepers of such establishments. For instance, in some seminaries the regimen places piano-playing first, and the French language second, and then the above department of housewifery; while in other seminaries the knitting of "surprises” heads the list, and then the French language, and then the playing of pianos-so diverse are the systems in force! View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Why are you being so stingy?", Sobakevich demanded. "It's cheap at the price. A rogue would cheat you, sell you some worthless rubbish instead of souls, but mine are as juicy as ripe nuts, all picked-they are all either craftsmen or sturdy peasants. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born? View quote
Nikolai Gogol
Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
The Lord grant we may all be tillers of the soil. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
You can't imagine how stupid the whole world has grown nowadays. (Nikolai Gogol)
There are certain words which are nearer and dearer to a man than any others. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
We ought to thank God for that. Yes, the man who tills the land is more worthy of respect than any. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
It's the most righteous, which of course is not the same thing as the most profitable. View quote
Nikolai Gogol
As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind... Why is it that even in moments of unthinking, careless gaiety a different and strange mood comes upon one? View quote
Nikolai Gogol