“Unforced, as conversation passed,
he had the talent of saluting
felicitously every theme,
of listening like a judge-supreme
while serious topics were disputing,
or, with an epigram-surprise,
of kindling smiles in ladies' eyes.”

—  Aleksandr Pushkin , book Eugene Onegin

Source: Eugene Onegin (1823), Ch. 1, st. 5.

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Aleksandr Pushkin 33
Russian poet 1799–1837

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