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 never started from ideas but always from character.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of character over mere ideas in achieving meaningful outcomes.
Ivan Turgenev suggests that the foundation of any creation or action lies not in the ideas themselves, but in the character of the individual behind them. It implies that true success and impactful ideas stem from a person's integrity, values, and moral standing, highlighting the notion that character shapes the way ideas are perceived and executed.
Themes
CharacterIdeasIntegrityPhilosophyValues
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about personal growth and integrity.
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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