To desire and expect nothing for oneself and to have profound sympathy for others is genuine holiness.
Ivan TurgenevRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Youth often indulges in pleasures without realizing their true value, but with age, one learns to appreciate the simpler, more essential things in life.
In this quote, Turgenev contrasts the carefree and indulgent nature of youth with the more discerning perspective that often comes with age. The metaphor of 'sugared fancy cakes' represents the temporary and superficial pleasures that young people often indulge in, while 'a crust' signifies a desire for simplicity and substance as one matures. This reflects the journey of learning to value what is truly important and nourishing in life, rather than being distracted by fleeting delights.
Themes
YouthAgeWisdomValuePleasureLife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a graduation speech to illustrate the journey from youthful indulgence to adult appreciation of life's essentials.
More from Ivan Turgenev
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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!
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Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.
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I walked in the meadows of green grieving for my life.
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