Interesting Quotations

~From the Poetic Edda~

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About his intelligence no man should be boastful,
rather cautious of mind;
when a wise and silent man comes to a homestead
seldom does shame befall the wary;
for no more trustworthy a friend can any man get
than a store of common sense.

This man is fortunate who can get for himself
praise and good will;
very difficult it is when a man lays claim
to what's in another's heart.

-- Sayings of the High One, v. 6, 8 --


You know, if you've a friend whom you really trust

and from whom you want nothing but good, 

you should mix your soul with his and exchange gifts,

go and see him often.

If you've another, whom you don't trust,

but from whom you want nothing but good,

speak fairly to him but think falsely

and repay treachery with lies.  

-- Sayings of the High One, v. 44, 45 --


Cattle die, kinsmen die,
the self must also die;
but glory never dies,
for the man who is able to achieve it.

--Sayings of the High One, v. 76--

~From Fyodor Dostoevski~

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He is an intelligent man, but it takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

--Crime and Punishment--

You can't overleap nature with logic alone! Logic will presuppose three cases, when there are a million of them! Cut away the million, and reduce everything to the question of comfort! The easiest solution to the problem! Enticingly clear, and there's no need to think! Above all, there's no need to think! The whole of life's mystery can fit on two printed pages!

--Crime and Punishment--


Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a broad consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great men, I think, must feel great sorrow in this world.

--Crime and Punishment--


But these are all golden dreams.  Oh, tell me, who first announced, who was the first to proclaim that man does dirty only because he doesn't know his real interests; and that were he to be enlightened, were his eyes to be opened to his real, normal interests, man would immediately stop doing dirty, would immediately become good and noble, because, being enlightened and understanding his real profit, he would see his real profit precisely in the good, and it's common knowledge that no man can act knowingly against his own profit, consequently, out of necessity, so to speak, he would start doing good?  Oh the babe! oh the pure, innocent child!

--Notes from Underground--

In certain cases, really, it is more honourable to yield to some passion, however unwise, if it springs from great love, than not to yield to it at all.

--The Brothers Karamazov--

By some pre-temporal assignment, which I have never been able to figure out, I am appointed 'to negate,' whereas I am sincerely kind and totally unable to negate. No, they say go and negate, without negation there will be no criticism, and what sort of journal has no 'criticism section'? Without criticism, there would be nothing but 'Hosannah.' But 'Hosannah' alone is not enough for life, it is necessary that this 'Hosannah' pass through the crucible of doubt, and so on, in the same vein.

[this snippet is from the devil's conversation with Ivan Karamazov, wherein he describes the point of his existence]

--The Brothers Karamazov--

~From The Epic of Gilgamesh~

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There is a house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay is their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away for ever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old.

--Seventh Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh--

~From Ray Bradbury~

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 So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show us the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam.

--Fahrenheit 451--

~From Aleksandr Pushkin~

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All of us had a bit of schooling
in something and somehow:
hence education, God be praised,
is in our midst not hard to flaunt.
Onegin was, in the opinion of many
(judges resolute and stern),
a learned fellow but a pedant.
He had the happy talent,
without constraint, in conversation
slightly to touch on everything,
with an expert's learned air
keep silent in a grave discussion,
and provoke the smile of ladies
with the fire of unexpected epigrams. 

--Eugene Onegin, Ch.1 V--

~From Sir Francis Bacon~

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Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

--On Studies--