Quotes from Petersburg

“People as such do not exist: they are all 'things conceived”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“In the lacquered house the storms of life took their course quietly; nevertheless the storms of life here took their course calamitously: they did not thunder with events; they did not shine a cleansing light into the inhabitants’ hearts with arrows of lightning; but from a hoarse throat they wrung the air in a torrent of poisonous fluids; and in the consciousness of the inhabitants cerebral games swirled round, like dense gases in hermetically sealed jars.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“As ruas de Petersburgo possuem uma propriedade indubitável - a de transformar transeuntes em sombras.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“A renda transformou-se em Petersburgo matinal: lá estavam os prédios de cinco andares cor de areia; o palácio ruivo-avermelhado coloriu-se de aurora.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“Изморось поливала прохожих: награждала их гриппами; вместе с тонкою пылью дождя инфлуэнцы и гриппы заползали под приподнятый воротник: гимназиста, студента, чиновника, офицера, субъекта; и субъект (так сказать, обыватель) озирался тоскливо; и глядел на проспект стерто-серым лицом; циркулировал он в бесконечность проспектов, преодолевал бесконечность, без всякого ропота — в бесконечном токе таких же, как он,— среди лёта, грохота, трепетанья, пролеток, слушая издали мелодичный голос автомобильных рулад и нарастающий гул желто-красных трамваев (гул потом убывающий снова), в непрерывном окрике голосистых газетчиков.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“Tu, Rússia, és como o cavalo! Dois cascos dianteiros projetados para a escuridão, pasa o zazio; e os dois cascos traseiros cravados firmemente no solo de granito.
Queres tu também te separar da pedra que te segura, da mesma maneira que alguns dos teus filhos loucos que se apartaram do torrão pátrio - queres tu também te separar da pedra que te sustenta e ficar suspensa no ar, sem rédeas, para precipitar-te depois no caos das águas? Ou talvez queira lançar-te, rompendo as neblinas, através do espaço, para desaparecer, juntamente com os teus filhos, nas nuvens? Ou, empinada, puseste-te a meditar por muitos anos, oh, Rússia, diante do terrível destino que aqui te lançou - no meio deste norte soturno, onde até o ocaso leva muitas horas, onde o próprio tempo se lança, ora na noite gelada, ora - no resplendor do dia? Ou, temerosa do salto, baixarás novamente os cascos para levar, bufando, o enorme Cavaleiro das terras ilusórias para o fundo dos espaços planos?
Que assim não seja!...
Tendo uma vez se empinado e medido o espaço com o olhar, não baixará mais os cascos: o salto sobre a história: haverá; haverá uma grande agitação, rachar-se-á a terra; abalados pelo grande temor, irão ruir os próprios montes e as planícies queridas virarão um mar de corcovas. Nijni Nóvgorod, Vladímir e Uglitch ficarão sobre as corcovas.
Mas Petersburgo afundará.
Nesses dias todos os povos da terra irão arremeter-se de seus lugares; haverá uma grande batalha, - uma batalha inédita no mundo: hostes amarelas de asiáticos deixarão os locais tradicionais de sua habitação para manchar os campos da Europa com oceanos de sangue; haverá, haverá - Sushima! Haverá - uma nova Kalka!...
Campo de Kulikovo, à tua espera estou!
E neste dia o último sol resplandecerá sobre a minha terra pátria. Se, oh, Sol, se tu não nasceres, então, oh, Sol, as costas européias irão afundar sob o pesado calcanhar mongólico, e sobre essas costas irá encrespar-se a espuma; criaturas nascidas na Terra descerão novamente para o fundo dos oceanos - para o caos, progênito a muito tempo esquecido...
Nasce, oh, Sol!”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“E Serguei Sergueievitch fez barba e bigode: e tinha agora o aspecto de um perfeito idiota.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“Из неоформленной глины общества хорошо лепить в вечность замечательный бюст.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

“He tried not to think, not to understand: could there be any understanding of this? This had come, had crushed, and was roaring. If you thought about it--you would throw yourself through a hole in the ice.
In his soul something bellowed piteously like a bullock under the knife in the slaughterhouse.”
― Andrei Bely, quote from Petersburg

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Popular quotes

“The minute I was bored with a book or a subject I moved to another one, instead of giving up on reading altogether - when you are limited to the school material and you get bored, you have a tendency to give up and do nothing or play hooky out of discouragement.

The trick is to be bored with a specific book, rather than with the act of reading. So the number of the pages absorbed could grow faster than otherwise. And you find gold, so to speak, effortlessly, just as in rational but undirected trial-and-error-based research. It is exactly like options, trial and error, not getting stuck, bifurcating when necessary but keeping a sense of broad freedom and opportunism.

Trial and error is freedom.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, quote from Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

“Amah was always wary of voicing misfortunes, fearing that to do so would only make them come true.”
― Yangsze Choo, quote from The Ghost Bride

“You’re running out of tomorrows.”
Running out of tomorrows, I repeated to myself in my room, sprawling across my bed to begin another midnight marathon of homework. Sometimes I felt as if there were no tomorrows, that everything, my whole life, was crammed into one long day. A continuous stretch of meaningless time. Sometimes I even wished there was no tomorrow, if this was all I had to look forward to. (Chapter.10)”
― Julie Anne Peters, quote from Keeping You a Secret

“The truth may not set you free, but used carefully, it can confuse the hell out of your enemies.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, quote from Micah

“People create their own little hells. They don’t need my help”
― Carol Plum-Ucci, quote from What Happened to Lani Garver

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.