Quotes by Boris Pasternak

Boris Pasternak

Boris Pasternak

Russian writer

Lived from: 1890 - 1960

Category: Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagRussia

Born: 10 february 1890 Died: 30 may 1960

  • As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.
  • Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one's stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life.

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  • The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction, it's a part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space, and is inside us, like the teeth in our mouth. It can't be forever violated with impunity.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • A candle burned on the table, a candle burned... he whispered to himself — the beginning of something confused, formless; he hoped that it would take shape of itself. But nothing more came to him.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • All customs and traditions, all our way of life, everything to do with home and order, has crumbled into dust in the general upheaval and reorganization of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined. All that's left is the naked human soul stripped to the last shred, for which nothing has changed because it was always cold and shivering and reaching out to its nearest neighbor, as cold and lonely as itself.
    Doctor Zhivago (1958) Ch. 13
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Am I a gangster or a murderer?
    Of what crime do I stand
    Condemned? I made the whole world weep
    At the beauty of my land.
    Selected Poems (1983)
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Art always serves beauty, and beauty is the joy of possessing form, and form is the key to organic life since no living thing can exist without it.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Art has two constant, two unending concerns: It always meditates on death and thus always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St John.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Art is interested in life at the moment when the ray of power is passing through it.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • At the moment of childbirth, every woman has the same aura of isolation, as though she were abandoned, alone.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must reject this undeserved prize which has been presented to me. Please do not receive my voluntary rejection with displeasure.
    Telegram naar Nobelcomite (29-10-1958)
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Everything established, settled, everything to do with home and order and the common round, has crumbled into dust and been swept away in the general upheaval and reorganization of the whole of society.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Soloviev or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth, and they shun those whose sole concern is not the truth.
    Doctor Zhivago
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • If it is so painful to love and to be charged with this electric current, how much more painful must it be to a woman and to be the current, and to inspire love.
    Doctor Zhivago (1957)
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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  • In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will.
    ― Boris Pasternak
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What are the most famous quotes from Boris Pasternak?

The two most famous quotes from Boris Pasternak are:

  • "The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction, it's a part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space, and is inside us, like the teeth in our mouth. It can't be forever violated with impunity."
  • "A candle burned on the table, a candle burned... he whispered to himself — the beginning of something confused, formless; he hoped that it would take shape of itself. But nothing more came to him."

When did Boris Pasternak live?

Boris Pasternak was born in 1890 and died in the year 1960.