Quotes from Fathers and Sons

“We sit in the mud, my friend, and reach for the stars.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“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 Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“As we all know, time sometimes flies like a bird, and sometimes
crawls like a worm, but people may be unusually happy when they do not
even notice whether time has passed quickly or slowly”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“I don't see why it's impossible to express everything that's on one's mind.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me — a long, long road without a goal...”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“A withered maple leaf has left its branch and is falling to the ground; its movements resemble those of a butterfly in flight. Isn't it strange? The saddest and deadest of things is yet so like the gayest and most vital of creatures?”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“It's all romanticism, nonsense, rottenness, art.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“Behind me there are already so many memories (...) Lots of memories, but no point in remembering them, and ahead of me a long, long road with nothing to aim for ... I just don't want to go along it.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“What's important is that twice two is four and all the rest's nonsense.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“a person who gets angry at his own illness is sure to overcome it”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“What a magnificent body, how I should like to see it on the dissecting table.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“Well, what had I to say to you ... I loved you! there was no sense in that even before, and less than ever now. Love is a form, and my own form is already breaking up. Better say how lovely you are! And now here you stand, so beautiful ...”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“Every man hangs by a thread, any minute the abyss may open under his feet, and yet he must go and invent for himself all kinds of troubles and spoil his life.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“He was the soul of politeness to everyone -- to some with a hint of aversion, to others with a hint of respect. ”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“…Many things interested her, and nothing satisfied her entirely.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“What I'm thinking is: here I am, lying under a haystack ... The tiny little place I occupy is so small in relation to the rest of space where I am not and where it's none of my business; and the amount of time which I'll succeed in living is so insignificant by comparison with the eternity where I haven't been and never will be ... And yet in this atom, in this mathematical point, the blood circulates, the brain works and even desires something as well .. What sheer ugliness! What sheer nonsense!”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“it’s fun talking to you… like walking on the edge of a precipice. At first one’s nervous but then courage takes over from somewhere.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“First we've got to clear the ground.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“even nightingales can’t live on songs alone.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“The enchanted world arising out of the dim mists of the past, into which he just stepped, quivered-and disappeared.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“I must say, though, that a man who has staked his whole life on the card of a woman's love and who, when that card is trumped, falls to pieces and lets himself go to the dogs -- a fellow like that is not a man, not a male. You say he's unhappy -- you know best. But all the nonsense hasn't been taken out of him yet. I'm sure he really believes he's a smart fellow just because he reads that rag Galignani and saves a muzhik from a flogging once a month.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“Yes," he said, without looking at anyone; "it's a misfortune to live five years in the country like this, far from the mighty intellects! You turn into a fool directly. You may try not to forget what you've been taught, but -in a snap!- they'll prove all that's rubbish, and tell you that sensible men have nothing more to do with such foolishness, and that you, if you please, are an antiquated old fogey. What's to be done? Young people, of course, are cleverer than we are!”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“Good-bye,' he said with sudden force, and his eyes gleamed with their last light. 'Good-bye.... Listen ... you know I didn't kiss you then.... Breathe on the dying lamp, and let it go out ...”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“You are an old pig!'one of them said to the other. 'And that is worse than being a young one.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“She found it sinful and expensive to have sugar in her tea, although she herself never spent a penny on anything.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

“A nihilist is a man who doesn’t acknowledge any authorities, who doesn’t accept a single principle on faith, no matter how much that principle may be surrounded by respect.”
― Ivan Turgenev, quote from Fathers and Sons

About the author

Popular quotes

“He’d told her how orphaned birds would sometimes accept the most pathetic substitutes for their mothers—a pullover, a hot-water bottle, an armpit, or even a paper airplane—anything rather than nothing, but preferably something that moved.”
― Julia Gregson, quote from East of the Sun

“Eva, I am orderin’ ye to go.” “Well, you can order all you bloody like, my lord husband, but I will not leave your side until I get the bleeding stopped,” she snapped and Connall gaped at her, unable to believe his sweet, witty, lovely little bride had spoken to him so. Were wives not supposed to obey their husbands? He was sure he recalled that in the wedding ceremony. “Come,”
― Hannah Howell, quote from The Eternal Highlander

“Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for, and deserves to be respected. Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, quote from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“This kind of war was full of fascinating thrills. It was not like the Great War. Nobody expected to be killed. Here and there in every regiment or battalion, half a dozen, a score, at the worst thirty or forty, would pay forfeit; but to the great mass of those who took part in the little wars of Britain in those vanished and light-hearted days, this was only a sporting element in a splendid game. Most of us were fated to se a war where the hazards were reversed, where death was the general expectation and severe wounds were counted as lucky escapes, where whole brigades were shorn away under the steel flail of artillery and machine-guns, where the survivors of one tornado knew that they would certainly be consumed in the next or the next after that.

Everything depends upon the scale of events. We young men who lay down to sleep that night within three miles of 60,000 well-armed fanatical Dervishes, expecting every moment their violent onset or inrush and sure of fighting at latest with the dawn – we may perhaps be pardoned if we thought we were at grips with real war.”
― Winston S. Churchill, quote from My Early Life, 1874-1904

“Socrates: So even our walks are dangerous here. But you seem to have avoided the most dangerous thing of all.

Bertha: What's that?

Socrates: Philosophy.

Bertha: Oh, we have philosophers here.

Socrates: Where are they?

Bertha: In the philosophy department.

Socrates: Philosophy is not department.

Bertha: Well, we have philosophers.

Socrates: Are they dangerous?

Bertha: Of course not.

Socrates: Then they are not true philosophers.”
― Peter Kreeft, quote from Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.