Alexander Herzen

“It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to blind it, to drive it mad, to direct it toward a false goal. Napoleon proved this.”

“We are not doctors, we are the pain.”

“The man who is satisfied is a man who is finished.”

“Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live.”

“What is this life of ours? A prelude to that eternal song which the angel of death shall sing to us.”

“The person who can be a slave is a slave.”

“Art, and the summer lightning of individual happiness: these are the only real things we have.”

“A living man does not have to be consoled or content; he needs to live.”

“The slavery of the mind is the heaviest of all yokes.”

“The future is not a given. It is something to be fought for.”

“Revolutions are not made by men in silk gloves.”

“The death of a contemporary is a tiny event in the great ocean of history, but it is a great event in the small puddle of our private lives.”

“To be a human being is a great responsibility, which is sometimes too much to bear.”