They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that experiencing failure and struggle is essential for appreciating the beauty of life.
In this quote, Boris Pasternak expresses the idea that individuals who have never faced challenges or failures lack a deeper understanding of life's richness and complexities. He argues that true virtue is born from the struggles we face, which teach us resilience and allow us to see the beauty that comes from overcoming adversity.
Themes
FailureStruggleLifeVirtueBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about resilience.
More from Boris Pasternak
All quotes βEven so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
Boris PasternakRead
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
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Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
Boris PasternakRead
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Boris PasternakRead
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Boris PasternakRead
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