Don't blame the mirror if your face is faulty. Nikolai Gogol More Quotes by Nikolai Gogol More Quotes From Nikolai Gogol They're thinking of turning the peasant into an educated man. Why, first of all they should make him a good and prosperous farmer and then he'll learn all that is necessary for him to know. Nikolai Gogol literature men thinking Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man. Nikolai Gogol happens men There are certain words which are nearer and dearer to a man than any others. Nikolai Gogol certain men As it is so strangely ordained in this world, what is amusing will turn into being gloomy, if you stand too long before it, and then God knows what ideas may not stray into the mind... Why is it that even in moments of unthinking, careless gaiety a different and strange mood comes upon one? Nikolai Gogol mind long ideas Two turtle doves will show thee Where my cold ashes lie And sadly murmuring tell thee How in tears I did die Nikolai Gogol turtles two lying ...and sank into the profound slumber which comes only to such fortunate folk as are troubled neither with mosquitoes nor fleas nor excessive activity of brain. Nikolai Gogol mosquitoes brain profound Of course, Alexander the Great was a hero, but why smash the chairs? Nikolai Gogol chairs courses hero We ought to thank God for that. Yes, the man who tills the land is more worthy of respect than any. Nikolai Gogol thank-you-god land men The more debris there is the more it will show the governor's activity. Nikolai Gogol governors debris shows What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself. Nikolai Gogol laugh-at-yourself laughing As countless as grains of sand by the sea are human passions, and they all differ; all of them, vile or lofty, begin by being under a man's control and then become his terrible masters. Blessed is he who has chosen the most lofty of passions: his immeasurable bliss grows and multiplies tenfold with every hour and minute, and he penetrates deeper and deeper into the infinite paradise of his soul. Nikolai Gogol passion literature sea For public opinion does not admit that lofty rapturous laughter is worthy to stand beside lofty lyrical emotion and that there isall the difference in the world between it and the antics of a clown at a fair. Nikolai Gogol public-opinion laughter differences The Lord grant we may all be tillers of the soil. Nikolai Gogol soil literature may In the course of reading he [Alexander Pushkin] became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorrow: "Goodness, how sad is our Russia!" Nikolai Gogol russia goodness Do we ever get what we really want? Do we ever achieve what our powers have ostensibly equipped us for? No: everything works by contraries. Nikolai Gogol contrary achieve want What is stronger in us — passion or habit? Or are all the violent impulses, all the whirl of our desires and turbulent passions, only the consequence of our ardent age, and is it only through youth that they seem deep and shattering? Nikolai Gogol passion age desire Countless are, as the sand in the sea, the deep desires of men, and none resembles the other, and all of them, whether shameful, or great, in the beginning are obedient, but later become terrible masters over him. Nikolai Gogol sea desire men It is well-known that there are many faces in the world over the finishing of which nature did not take much trouble, did not employ any fine tools such as files, gimlets, and so on, but simply hacked them out with round strokes: one chop-a nose appears; another chop-lips appear; eyes are scooped out with a big drill; and she lets it go into the world rough-hewn, saing: "ALIVE! Nikolai Gogol finishing let-it-go eye I am very fond of the modest manner of life of those solitary owners of remote villages, who in Little Russia are commonly called "old-fashioned," who are like tumbledown picturesque little houses, delightful in their simplicity and complete unlikeness to the new smooth buildings whose walls have not yet been discolored by the rain, whose roofs are not yet covered with green lichen, and whose porch does not display its bricks through the peeling stucco. Nikolai Gogol wall russia rain [F]or contemporary judgment does not recognize that much depth of soul is needed to light up the picture drawn from contemptible life and elevate it into a pearl of creation. Nikolai Gogol depth light soul