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
It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that she is repulsed by those who lack ambition or depth.
In this quote, Turgenev conveys the idea that the protagonist has a disdain for the ordinary or commonplace qualities found in people who do not strive for greatness or possess a deeper understanding of life. This perspective highlights a desire for more substantial connections and a rejection of mediocrity, suggesting that she seeks inspiration and depth in her relationships rather than settling for the mundane.
Themes
MediocrityDisdainDepthAmbitionRepulsion
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the importance of striving for excellence.
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
Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. It is like a bird that has blundered down the flue and is caught indoors and flutters at the windowpanes. It is like standing a long time on a cold day, knocking at a shut door.
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Loyalty must arise spontaneously from the hearts of people who love their country and respect their government.
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If you're an actor, you tend to fool yourself into thinking you're much younger than you are because you're playing parts and behaving like a child all the time.
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What is the good life? What is the good man? The good woman? What is the good society and what is my relation to it? What are my obligations to society? What is best for my children? What is justice? Truth? Virtue? What is my relation to nature, to death, to aging, to pain, to illness? How can I live a zestful, enjoyable, meaningful life? What is my responsibility to my brothers? Who are my brothers? What shall I be loyal to? What must I be ready to die for?
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Likewise grace and glory are referred to the same genus, since grace is nothing other than a certain first beginning of glory in us.
Thomas AquinasRead
Men would live exceedingly quiet if these two words, mine and thine, were taken away.
AnaxagorasRead