The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (“A Story About The Most Important Thing”) Yevgeny Zamyatin More Quotes by Yevgeny Zamyatin More Quotes From Yevgeny Zamyatin The flame will cool tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.... But someone must see this already today, and speak heretically today about tomorrow. Heretics are the only (bitter) remedy against the entropy of human thought. Yevgeny Zamyatin flames inspirational art Philosophers of genius, children, and the people are equally wise - because they ask equally foolish questions. Foolish to a civilized man who has a well-furnished European apartment with an excellent toilet and a well-furnished dogma. Yevgeny Zamyatin wise inspirational art It is said there are flowers that bloom only once in a hundred years. Why should there not be some that bloom once in a thousand, in ten thousand years? Perhaps we never know about them simply because this "once in a thousand years" has come today. Yevgeny Zamyatin flower love years All women are lips, nothing but lips. Yevgeny Zamyatin lips Knowledge! What does that mean? Your knowledge is nothing but cowardice. No, really, that's all it is. You just want to put a little wall around infinity. And you're afraid to look on the other side of that wall. Yevgeny Zamyatin wall mean knowledge The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy... Yevgeny Zamyatin copernicus alive world If we have no heretics we must invent them, for heresy is essential to health and growth. Yevgeny Zamyatin essentials growth literature The microspeed of the tongue ought to be always slightly less than the microspeed of the thoughts and certainly not ever the reverse. Yevgeny Zamyatin reverse tongue ought And why do you think that foolishness is bad? If human foolishness had been as carefully nurtured and cultivated as intelligence has been for centuries, perhaps it would have turned into something extremely precious. Yevgeny Zamyatin century humans thinking The most agonising thing is to drop doubt into a man about his being a reality, three-dimensional - and not some other kind of reality. Yevgeny Zamyatin doubt men reality The nights were long, like the braids of a pretty girl, and the days were short, like a girl's sense. ("The North") Yevgeny Zamyatin girl night long They do not need the sun. Who needs the sun when the eyes glow? Darkness. A woolen fog has wrapped the earth, has dropped a heavy curtain. From far away, from beyond the curtain, comes the sound of drops falling on stone. Far, far away - the autumn, people, tomorrow. ("The North") Yevgeny Zamyatin autumn eye fall But you can't plead with autumn. No. The midnight wind stalked through the woods, hooted to frighten you, swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves. ("The North") Yevgeny Zamyatin autumn winter fall Here I saw, with my own eyes, that laughter was the most terrible weapon: you can kill anything with laughter - even murder itself. Yevgeny Zamyatin laughter weapons eye Her smile was a bite, and I was its target. Yevgeny Zamyatin her-smile target bites The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind. Yevgeny Zamyatin men mean lying We have long become overgrown with calluses; we no longer hear people being killed. ("X") Yevgeny Zamyatin calluses long people The knife is the most permanent, the most immortal, the most ingenious of man's creations. The knife was a guillotine; the knife is a universal means of resolving all knots. Yevgeny Zamyatin men science mean You're in a bad way! Apparently, you have developed a soul. Yevgeny Zamyatin soul way Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue. Yevgeny Zamyatin style balance lying