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
Take what you can yourself, and don't let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of life lies in self-ownership and independence from others' control.
This quote by Ivan Turgenev emphasizes the importance of individual autonomy and self-reliance. It suggests that true fulfillment in life comes from being able to make one's own choices and not to be subjected to the influence or control of others. The idea of belonging to oneself signifies that personal sovereignty is vital for a meaningful existence.
Themes
Self-OwnershipIndependenceAutonomyLifePersonal Freedom
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational seminar about personal growth, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of self-reliance.
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
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