The collection / 43 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

SearchTypeTopicEraCulture / collection labelCountry attributionTraditionOrder

Author

Leave empty for every voice. Browse all authors ↗

Reset

Culture labels and country attributions follow the source collections; earliest origins may be unknown.

43 results · Page 1 of 2Play this collection ▷

01Undated

Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

02Undated

But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

03Undated

Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

04Undated

The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

05Undated

How sad, ye Gods, how sad the world is at evening, how mysterious the mists over the swamps! You will know it when you have wandered astray in those mists, when you have suffered greatly before dying, when you have walked through the world carrying an unbearable burden. You know it too when you are weary and ready to leave this earth without regret; its mists; its swamps and its rivers; ready to give yourself into the arms of death with a light heart, knowing that death alone can comfort you.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

06Undated

Cowardice is the most terrible of vices.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

07Undated

If you’ve been exiled, why don’t you send me word of yourself? People do send word. Have you stopped loving me? No, for some reason I don’t believe that. It means you were exiled and died … Release me, then, I beg you, give me freedom to live, finally, to breathe the air! …’ Margarita Nikolaevna answered for him herself: ’You are free … am I holding you?’ Then she objected to him: ’No, what kind of answer is that? No, go from my memory, then I’ll be free …

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

08Undated

I don't have any special talents, just an ordinary desire to live like a human being.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

09Undated

Most bad," the host concluded. "If you ask me, something sinister lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and dinnertime conversation. Such people are either gravely ill or secretly detest everyone around them.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

10Undated

Why do smart people exist, if not to figure out convoluted problems?

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

11Undated

You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

12Undated

Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

13Undated

Margarita was never short of money. She could buy whatever she liked. Her husband had plenty of interesting friends. Margarita never had to cook. Margarita knew nothing of the horrors of living in a shared flat. In short... was she happy? Not for a moment.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

14Undated

Happiness is like good health: when you have it, you don’t notice it. But as the years go by, oh, the memories, the memories of happiness past!

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

15Undated

And now tell me, why is it that you use me words "good people" all the time? Do you call everyone that, or what?- Everyone, - the prisoner replied. - There are no evil people in the world.(- А теперь скажи мне, что это ты все время употребляешь слова добрыелюди"? Ты всех, что ли, так называешь?- Всех, - ответил арестант, - злых людей нет на свете.)

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

16Undated

Jesus to Pilate:"The trouble is," the bound man went on, not stopping by anyone, "that you are too closed off and have definitely lost faith in people. You must agree, one can't place all one's affection in a dog. Your life is impoverished, Hegemon.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

17Undated

I must give due praise to the man who first extracted morphine from poppyheads. He was a true benefactor of mankind. The pain stopped seven minutes after the injection. Interesting: the pain passed over me in ceaseless waves, so that I had to gasp for breath, as though a red-hot crowbar were being thrust into my stomach and rotated. Four minutes after the injection I was able to distinguish the wave-like nature of the pain.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

18Undated

What point is there in dying in a ward, listening to the moans and rasps of the terminally ill? Wouldn't it be better to spend the twenty-seven thousand on a banquet, then, after taking poison, depart for the other world to the sound of violins, surrounded by intoxicated beautiful women and dashing friends?

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

19Undated

No one's fate is of any interest to you except your own.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

20Undated

But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living beings. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You're stupid.

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

21Undated

What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

22Undated

You spoke your words as though you denied the very existence of the shadows or of evil. Think, now: where would your good be if there were no evil and what would the world look like without shadow?

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

23Undated

Man is mortal, and as the professor so rightly said mortality can come so suddenly

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗

24Undated

Everything passes away - suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the Earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes toward the stars? Why?

Mikhail Bulgakov / quote

↗