01c. 1910 ADWhat we need in literature today are vast philosophic horizons; we need the most ultimate, the most fearsome, the most fearless 'Why?' and 'What next?'("Literature, Revolution, and Entropy")Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
02c. 1910 ADIf human foolishness had been as carefully nurtured and cultivated as intelligence has been for centuries, perhaps it would have turned into something extremely precious.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
03c. 1910 ADHow do you know nonsense isn't a good thing? if human nonsense had been nurtured and developed for centuries, just as intelligence has, then perhaps something extraordinarily previous could have come from it.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
05c. 1910 ADChildren are the only bold philosophers. And bold philosophers are invariably children.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
06c. 1910 ADLet my notes, like the most sensitive seismograph, record the curve of even the most insignificant vibrations of my brain: for it is precisely such vibrations that are sometimes the forewarning of...Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
07c. 1910 ADTipsy, they tumbled early into bed - to get as much sleep as they could. So they would feel less hunger. The summer catch had been poor; there wasn't much food. They ate with care and looked sideways at the old: the old were gluttons, everybody knew it, and what was the good of feeding them? It wouldn't harm them to starve a little. The hungry dogs howled. The women rinsed the children's bellies with hot water three times a day, so they wouldn't cry so much for food. The old starved silently. ("The North")Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
08c. 1910 ADBut a thought swarmed in me; what if he, this yellow-eyed being – in his ridiculous, dirty bundle of trees, in his uncalculated life – is happier than us?Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
09c. 1910 AD...sentences of the court on moral issues are always passed in absentia.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
10c. 1910 ADThe government (or humanity) would not permit capital punishment for one man, but they permitted the murder of millions a little at a time.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
11c. 1910 ADStrictly speaking, she was out of order. This dear 0-, how shall 1 say it?The speed of her tongue is not correctly calculated; the speed per second of her tongue should be slightly less than the speed per second of her thoughts-at any rate not the reverse.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
12c. 1910 ADIn the ancient world, this was understood by the Christians, our only (if very imperfect) predecessors: Humility is a virtue, pride a vice; We comes from God, I from the Devil.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
13c. 1910 ADThe world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy. (“Tomorrow”)Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
14c. 1910 ADRevolution is everywhere, in everything. There is no final revolution, no final number.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
15c. 1910 ADN-no-o, all that excitement, it wouldn't reach us,' Timosha spoke gloomily. 'We're like the sunken city of Kitezh, living at the bottom of the lake. We do not hear a thing, and the water over us is muddy and sleepy. And on the surface, way above - why, everything's in flames, and the alarms are ringing.' (“A Provincial Tale”)Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
16c. 1910 ADAnd how can there be a final revolution? There is no final one. The number of revolutions is infinite.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
17c. 1910 ADThe flame will cool tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow (in the Book of Genesis days are equal to years, ages). But someone must see this already today, and speak heretically today about tomorrow. Heretics are the only (bitter) remedy against the entropy of human thought.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
18c. 1910 ADThe nights were long, like the braids of a pretty girl, and the days were short, like a girl's sense. ("The North")Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
19c. 1910 ADWhite-crested waves crash on the shore. The masts sway violently, every which way. In the gray sky the gulls are circling like white flakes. Rain squalls blow past like gray slanting sails, and blue gaps open in the sky. The air brightens. A cold silvery evening. The moon is overhead, and down below, in the water; and all around it-a wide frame of old, hammered, scaly silver. Etched on the silver-silent black fishing boats, tiny black needles of masts, little black men casting invisible lines into the silver. And the only sounds are the occasional plashing of an oar, the creaking of an oarlock, the springlike leap and flip-flop of a fish. ("The North")Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
20c. 1910 ADThe most agonising thing is to drop doubt into a man about his being a reality, three-dimensional - and not some other kind of reality.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
21c. 1910 ADLatchkey! I mean . . . I want to talk to you . . .' He fell silent, glancing behind him and shifting from foot to foot, his waterproof trousers rattling like the bulls' bladders that boys use to learn swimming. Sterlingov angrily spat out his cigarette. 'Well? What about?' 'A . . . about a secret matter ,' Alyoshka whispered. Dozens of ears floated around them in the dust waves; the whisper was heard, and it ran on like a spark along a gunpowder wick. Alyoshka's secret message, the mysterious special clothing, the deacon's catastrophe-all this was too much. The atmosphere was charged with thousands of volts, and something was needed to discharge the electricity, to clear the air. ("X")Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
22c. 1910 ADDo you believe that you will die? Yes man is mortal I am a man ergo... no that isn't what I mean. I know that you know that. What I am asking is, have you ever actually believed it? Believed it completely? Believed not with your mind but with your body? Actually felt that one the fingers now holding this very piece of paper will be icy and yellow? No, of course you don't believe it. Which is the reason why up until now you haven't jumped from the tenth floor to the pavement.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
23c. 1910 ADI'm like a machine being run over its RPM limit. The bearings are overheating: a minute longer and the metal will melt and start dripping and that will be the end of everything. I need a splash of cold water, logic; I pour it on in buckets but the logic hisses on the hot bearings and dissipates in the air as a fleeting white mistYevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
24c. 1910 ADI am like a machine being driven to excessive rotations: the bearings are incandescing and, in a minute, melted metal will begin to drip and everything will turn to nothing. Quick: get cold water, logic. I am pouring it over myself by the bucketload but the logic sizzles on the hot bearings and dissipates elusive white steam into the air.Yevgeny Zamyatin / quote ↗
