xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that conceived and composed that book.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

“… in my dreams the world would come alive, becoming so captivatingly majestic, free and ethereal, that afterwards it would be oppressive to breathe the dust of this painted life.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Invitation to a Beheading

Source: Invitation to a Beheading

“…(hot, opalescent, thick tears that poets and lovers shed)…”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“Everything in the world is beautiful, but Man only recognizes beauty if he sees it either seldom or from afar. Listen, today we are gods! Our blue shadows are enormous! We move in a gigantic, joyful world!”

Vladimir Nabokov book The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

Source: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

“Because you took advantage of my disadvantage.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“Humbert was perfectly capable of intercourse with Eve, but it was Lilith he longed for.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“One is always at home in one's past…”

Vladimir Nabokov book Speak, Memory

Source: Speak, Memory

“We are most artistically caged.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Pale Fire

Source: Pale Fire

“Ink, a Drug.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Bend Sinister

Source: Bend Sinister

“She was like Marat only with nobody to kill her.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“Mind you, sometimes the angels smoke, hiding it with their sleeves, and when the archangel comes, they throw the cigarettes away: that’s when you get shooting stars.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

“Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

Speak, Memory: A Memoir (1951)
Context: The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour).

“My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Strong Opinions

"Foreword", p. 3.
Source: Strong Opinions (1973)

“You know, what's so dreadful about dying is that you are completely on your own.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“I am sufficiently proud of my knowing something to be modest about my not knowing all.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle…”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

“if a violin string could ache, i would be that string.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

“Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor