Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there'll come a time when you'll start asking just for a crust.
Ivan TurgenevRead
I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complexities of human nature, particularly the burdens of goodness.
Ivan Turgenev's quote suggests that while the speaker can only speculate about the nature of evil, they have a profound understanding of goodness, which is characterized by deep suffering and challenge. This implies that the heart of a good person often bears the weight of their moral convictions and the empathy they feel for others, making the burdens of goodness feel tremendous and, at times, unbearable.
Themes
HeartGoodnessSufferingHuman NatureMorality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the challenges of maintaining moral integrity in difficult situations.
More from Ivan Turgenev
All quotes →To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
Ivan TurgenevRead
So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me - a long, long road without a goal.
Ivan TurgenevRead
If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
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Whereas I think: I’m lying here in a haystack... The tiny space I occupy is so infinitesimal in comparison with the rest of space, which I don’t occupy and which has no relation to me. And the period of time in which I’m fated to live is so insignificant beside the eternity in which I haven’t existed and won’t exist... And yet in this atom, this mathematical point, blood is circulating, a brain is working, desiring something... What chaos! What a farce!
Ivan TurgenevRead
Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
Ivan TurgenevRead
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