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Alexander Herzen Quotes

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian writer and thinker known as the precursor of Russian socialism and one of the main precursors of agrarian populism . With his writings, many composed while exiled in London, he attempted to influence the situation in Russia, contributing to a political climate that led to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. He published the important social novel Who is to Blame? . His autobiography, My Past and Thoughts , is often considered one of the best examples of that genre in Russian literature. Wikipedia  

✵ 25. March 1812 – 9. January 1870   •   Other names Alexandr Ivanovič Herzen, Alexander Ivanovič Gercen
Alexander Herzen photo

Works

My Past and Thoughts
My Past and Thoughts
Alexander Herzen
Alexander Herzen: 9   quotes 6   likes

Famous Alexander Herzen Quotes

“There is no art more akin to mysticism than architecture. Abstract, geometrical, musical and yet dumb, passionless, it depends entirely upon symbolism, form and suggestion. Simple lies, and the harmonious combination and numerical relations between these, present something mysterious and at the same time incomplete.”

Alexander Herzen book My Past and Thoughts

My Past and Thoughts(1852-1870)

“Socialism and rationalism are to this day the touchstones of humanity, the rocks which lie in the course of revolution and science. Groups of swimmers, driven by reflection or the waves of circumstance against these rocks, break up at once into two camps, which, under different disguises, remain the same throughout all history, and may be distinguished either in a great political party or in a group of a dozen young men. One represents logic; the other, history: one stands for dialectics; the other for evolution. Truth is the main object of the former, and feasibility of the latter.”

Alexander Herzen book My Past and Thoughts

ibid, Ch. 8, s. 12
My Past and Thoughts(1852-1870)

“A religion of life had come to replace a religion of penance and emaciation, of fasting and prayer. The crucified body had risen in its turn and was no longer abashed Man had reached a harmonious unity: he had discovered that he is a single being not made, like a pendulum, of two different metals,= that check each other; he realised that the foe in his members had ceased to exist.”

Alexander Herzen book My Past and Thoughts

ibid, Ch. 8, s. 12
My Past and Thoughts(1852-1870)

“I have a sincere pity for any nation where old heads grow on young shoulders; youth is a matter, not only of years, but of temperament.”

Alexander Herzen book My Past and Thoughts

ibid, Ch. 7, s.3
My Past and Thoughts(1852-1870)

“An empire that cannot distance itself from such a gruesome sin that so deeply affects its internal structure does not have the right to education, to future development and participation in history.”

Alexander Herzen

"Appeal to Nobles", (June 1853), Imperial Russia, A Source Book 1700-1917

“The peasants will be emancipated if there is a future for Rus and for the Slavic world.”

Alexander Herzen

"Appeal to Nobles", (June 1853), Imperial Russia, A Source Book 1700-1917

“It is both painful and shameful to be a slave. But it is even more distressing and painful to acknowledge that our slavery is necessary and normal and that it is a natural phenomenon. A great sin rests on our souls. We have inherited it but are not responsible for it. We are keeping our inheritance unjustly. Like a heavy rock it pushes us to the bottom, and with it around our necks we cannot swim. WE are slaves because our forefathers sold their human dignity for inhuman rights which we now enjoy. We are slaves because we are the masters. We are slaves because we are nobles, that is, nobles without any faith in our tights. We are slaves because we hold our brothers in slavery. They are our equals in birth, blood and language. We will never enjoy freedom as long as the wretched conditions of serfdom oppress us and as long as the hideous shameful, and totally unjust slavery of our peasants exists among us.”

Alexander Herzen

"Appeal to Nobles", (June 1853), Imperial Russia, A Source Book 1700-1917

“Personal freedom is a magnificent thing; by it and by it alone can a nation achieve its true freedom. Man must respect and honor his freedom in himself no less than in his neighbor or in the people at large.”

Alexander Herzen

Letter from Paris to His Friend in Moscow (March 1st, 1849), Imperial Russia, A Sourcebook 1700-1917

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