The people who bind themselves to systems are those who are unable to encompass the whole truth and try to catch it by the tail; a system is like the…

- Ivan Turgenev

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.

- Ivan Turgenev

What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.

- Ivan Turgenev

Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.

- Ivan Turgenev

Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have…

- Ivan Turgenev

Nothing is worse and more hurtful than a happiness that comes too late.

- Ivan Turgenev

Love isn't actually a feeling at all--it's an illness, a certain condition of body and soul.... Usually it takes possession of someone without his pe…

- Ivan Turgenev

To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.

- Ivan Turgenev

We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars.

- Ivan Turgenev