Book: Diary of a writer

Every person attacks a scandal; this is a characteristic of every person.

Almost half of the current budget is paid for by vodka, that is, in today's way, popular drunkenness and popular debauchery - therefore, the entire people's future.

It is impossible to artificially speed up the necessary and constant historical moments of people’s life.

A man of ideas and independent science, a man of independent business is formed only by the long, independent life of the nation, by its centuries-long suffering labor - in a word, he is formed by the entire historical life of the country.

Money can never buy everything; This is how only some uneducated merchant can reason in Mr. Ostrovsky’s comedy. For example, you can use money to set up schools, but you won’t be able to create teachers right now. A teacher is a subtle thing; The people's, national teacher is developed over centuries, supported by legends and countless experiences.

The other day I was dreaming about Russia’s position as a great European power, and something didn’t occur to me on this sad topic.

They will drive us crazy, but no one has ever been made smarter. The smartest person, in my opinion, is the one who calls himself a fool at least once a month - an ability now unheard of!

What is Voltaire like now? Nowadays it’s a cudgel, not Voltaire! They knocked out each other's last teeth!

Nowadays, humor and good style are disappearing and curses are being accepted instead of wit.

Mystical horror is the greatest power over the human soul.

There is no naive and solemn self-satisfaction in Russian people at all, even in stupid people.

Whether it is love, wine, revelry, pride, envy - here some Russian people give themselves up almost selflessly, ready to break everything, renounce everything, family, custom, God.

You see, to love a common man probably means to despise, and sometimes even hate, the real person standing next to you.

The economic and moral state of the people after liberation from the yoke of serfdom is terrible. Undoubted and extremely alarming facts testify to this every minute. The decline of morality, cheapness, Jewish innkeepers, theft and daytime robbery - all these are undoubted facts, and everything is growing, growing.