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Mikhail Lermontov Quotes (1814-1841)
Writer, Poet, Painter
About Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (October 15, 1814 β July 27, 1841) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism. His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel.
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βAnd everything that he saw before him
He despised or hated.β
He despised or hated.β
βA strange thing, the human heart in general, and woman's heart in particular.β
β...man, this ruler over general evil,
With a perfidious heart, with a lying tongue...β
With a perfidious heart, with a lying tongue...β
βMany a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.β
βFor what did the creator prepare me,
Why did he so terribly contradict
The hopes of my youth?...β
Why did he so terribly contradict
The hopes of my youth?...β
βI want to reconcile myself with heaven,
I want to love, I want to pray,
I want to believe in good.β
I want to love, I want to pray,
I want to believe in good.β
βOf two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither acknowledges the fact to himself.β
βWomen! Women! Who can understand them? Their smiles contradict their glances, their words promise and allure, but the tone of their voice repels.β
βIn simple hearts the feeling for the beauty and grandeur of nature is a hundred-fold stronger and more vivid than in us, ecstatic composers of narratives in words and on paper.β
βI am like a mariner born and bred on board a buccaneer brig whose soul has become so inured to storm and strife that if cast ashore he would weary and languish no matter how alluring the shady groves and how bright the gentle sun.β
βYou men do not understand the delights of a glance, of a pressure of the hand... but as for me, I swear to you that, when I listen to your voice, I feel such a deep, strange bliss that the most passionate kisses could not take its place.β
βA childish feeling, I admit, but, when we retire from the conventions of society and draw close to nature, we involuntarily become children: each attribute acquired by experience falls away from the soul, which becomes anew such as it was once and will surely be again.β
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Mikhail Lermontov on Nature 2 quotes
βIn simple hearts the feeling for the beauty and grandeur of nature is a hundred-fold stronger and more vivid than in us, ecstatic composers of narratives in words and on paper.β
Mikhail Lermontov on Vanity
Mikhail Lermontov on Penance
Mikhail Lermontov on Friendship
βOf two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither acknowledges the fact to himself.β
Mikhail Lermontov on Russia
Mikhail Lermontov on Soul
βThe history of a man's soul, even the pettiest soul, is hardly less interesting and useful than the history of a whole people; especially when the former is the result of the observations of a mature mind upon itself, and has been written without any egotistical desire of arousing sympathy or astonishment.β
What Mikhail Lermontov Said About Others
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Mikhail Lermontov on Women 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Women →Quotes About Mikhail Lermontov
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Nadezhda Krupskaya on Mikhail Lermontov
βI knew practically the whole of Lermontov by heart, and such writers as Chernyshevsky, Lev Tolstoi and Uspensky had, somehow, become part of my life.β
About Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (October 15, 1814 β July 27, 1841) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism. His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel.