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
However passionate, sinning, and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their innocent eyes; they tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of "indifferent" nature: they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the contrasting nature of life and death, emphasizing reconciliation with the past.
Turgenev's quote illustrates the dichotomy between the passionate, rebellious nature of human emotions and the serene, indifferent beauty of nature. The flowers symbolize life and innocence, suggesting that even in the presence of sin and turmoil, there is a peaceful coexistence and a hopeful message of reconciliation and continuity in life.
Themes
NatureLifeReconciliationPeaceEmotions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could inspire a reflection during a nature retreat as participants contemplate life's challenges.
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.
Ivan TurgenevRead
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
Similar quotes
If ever you wish to meet intellectual frauds in quantity, go to Paris.
V. S. NaipaulRead
most people are perfectly afraid of silence
E. E. CummingsRead
My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of the mind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only in formal logical, mathematical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poetic usage of language, etc.
David BohmRead
Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.
Thomas PaineRead
Maintain a spirit of peace and you will save a thousand souls.
Seraphim Of SarovRead
The Constitution is no simple contract, not because it uses a certain amount of open-ended language, but because its language grants and guarantees many good things, and good things that compete with each other and can never all be realized, altogether, all at once.
David SouterRead