Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogolwas a Russian dramatist, novelist and short story writer of Ukrainian ethnicity. Russian and Ukrainian scholars debate whether or not Gogol was of their respective ethnicities...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth31 March 1809
CityVelyki Sorochyntsi, Ukraine
CountryRussian Federation
disdain examining man
Wise is the man who does not disdain any character and instead, examining him with a searching look, plumbs him to the very main-springs of his being.
barely draws force midst mysterious plains squat towns
Russia! Russia... Everything in you is open, desolate and level; your squat towns barely protrude in the midst of the plains like dots, like counters; there is nothing to tempt or enchant the onlooker's gaze. But what is this inscrutable, mysterious force that draws me to you?
absurd happens utterly
What is utterly absurd happens in the world
attack believe dear devour earthly fair fortune people putting refuse sake spiritual
Believe me, my dear fellow, that so long as people refuse to give up everything for the sake of which they attack and devour each other on earth, that so long as they refuse to think of putting their spiritual fortune in order, there will be no fair distribution of earthly fortunes, either.
mind
Never mind beauty! Concentrate on the things that matter.
past joy sorrow
Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past.
men happens
Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man.
dream might waking
In the end dreams became his life, and his whole life thereafter took a strange turn: one might say he slept while waking and watched while asleep.
soul may body
Whatever you may say, the body depends on the soul.
men land ideas
The experience of ages has shown that a man who works on the land is purer, nobler, higher, and more moral... Agriculture should be at the basis of everything. That's my idea.
passion men
There are passions that it is not for man to choose.
perfect goes-on world
Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all
fall circles water
But there is nothing enduring in the world, and therefore even joy in the second minute is already not as acute as in the first; in the third minute it becomes still weaker and finally merges unnoticeably with the usual condition of the soul, as a circle on the water, caused by the fall of a pebble, finally merges with the smooth surface.
stupid men intelligent
However stupid a fools words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.