Mikhail Lermontov: Quotes about people

Mikhail Lermontov was Russian writer, poet and painter. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Mikhail Lermontov: 68   quotes 34   likes

“Happy people are ignoramuses and glory is nothing else but success, and to achieve it one only has to be cunning.”

Mikhail Lermontov book A Hero of Our Time

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

People , Success , Happiness

“The 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. Rousseau's Confessions has precisely this defect – he read it to his friends.”

Mikhail Lermontov book A Hero of Our Time

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

People , Soul , History , Reading

“In people's eyes I read
Pages of malice and sin.”

Mikhail Lermontov

"The Prophet" (1841)
Poems

People , Reading

“I was involuntarily struck by the aptitude which the Russian displays for accommodating himself to the customs of the people in whose midst he happens to be living. I know not whether this mental quality is deserving of censure or commendation, but it proves the incredible pliancy of his mind and the presence of that clear common sense which pardons evil wherever it sees that evil is inevitable or impossible of annihilation.”

Mikhail Lermontov book A Hero of Our Time

A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

People , Sense , Evil

“Farewell, unwashed Russia,
Land of slaves, land of masters,
And you, blue uniforms,
And you, people, devoted to them.
Perhaps beyond the wall of the Caucasus,
I will hide from your pashas,
From their all-seeing eye,
From their all-hearing ears.”

Mikhail Lermontov

—Published by Russky Arkhiv. Historical and literary collection (1890) Translation by Anatoly Liberman.
Original:
Прощай, немытая Россiя,
Страна рабовъ, страна господъ,
И вы, мундиры голубые,
И ты, имъ преданный народъ.
Быть можетъ, за стѣной Кавказа
Сокроюсь отъ твоихъ пашей,
Отъ ихъ всевидящаго глаза,
Отъ ихъ всеслышащихъ ушей.
Poems

People