Quotes by Nikolai Cernîșevski

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Art not only reproduces life, but also explains it; often her productions have the meaning of a verdict on the phenomena of life.

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Art, or rather poetry... propagates to the mass of readers an immense amount of testimonies and, what is more important, mediates the encounter with the notions elaborated by science; here is the great meaning of poetry, for life...

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All human actions must serve the cause of man, if they do not want to end up as vain and meaningless occupations: wealth exists for man to use it, and knowledge - to become man's guide; art must also serve a certain essential use and not a sterile pleasure...

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"Art for art's sake" is in our times as strange an idea as "wealth for wealth," "science for science," etc.

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Literature cannot but be the servant of the seeker or seeker of ideas: this is one of its essential missions - a mission that literature is unable to give up, even if it wanted to.

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Talent doubles anyone's price.

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The wonderful and the beautiful in a person are inconceivable without a harmonious development of the body and health.

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Coercion, by its nature, is harmful: it brings disappointment to the shamed and punished, it destroys his character, it arouses in him anger towards those who forbid him and who punish him, leading him to a hostile conflict with them.

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Progress is the aspiration towards the elevation of man to the rank of man.

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Life is empty and colorless only for colorless people, who talk about feelings and needs, but who are not able to have special feelings and needs, except to draw.

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The right to live and be happy is an empty phantom to the man without the means for such a thing.

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The patriot is a man who serves the country, and the country is first of all the people.

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To reject progress is as absurd as to reject the force of free fall.

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Opera is the most complete form of music as art.

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It is little to have only honesty, to be just and useful; a consistency of ideas is also needed.

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Man has never yet achieved anything great without enthusiasm and fervent devotion.

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No situation justifies inaction; we can always do something that is not completely useless, we must always do everything that can be done.

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No external compulsion can keep a man either at the height of reason or at that of morality, when he himself does not wish to keep himself there.

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He is only wise who is good by being as wise as he is good.

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The child who is least subject to insults develops as a person very aware of his dignity.

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I speak, of course, only of good mothers, when I say that it is good for sons to have some intimate friends in their mothers.

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The sense of one's own dignity develops only according to the independent proprietary state.

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Honor is one and the same for women and men, girls, married women, old men and children: "don't lie," "don't steal," "don't get drunk"; only from such norms, concerning all people, can a code of "honor" be constituted, in the true sense of the word.

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Man's nature indicates what kind of rest man likes.

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The character of the means must be similar to the character of the proposed goal, only then the means can lead to the achievement of the goals. Evil means are only fit for evil ends.

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The imagination acts on the senses with even greater energy when its images are more vivid.

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Scientific literature saves people from ignorance, and artistic literature from violence and vulgarity.

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In the moral sciences there are theoretical answers to almost all important problems in life, but in many cases people do not have the means to put into practice those things that the theory indicates.

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One whose principles are not clear not only harbors confusion in the mind but maintains chaos in personal affairs as well.

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Work must be in accordance with man's strengths. This is bad, i.e. unpleasant, when it exceeds them.

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Justice requires you to defend people who are suffering. Are they good? - That has nothing to do, as long as they are in pain.

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Look at your wife as you looked at her when she was a bride, knowing that she has the right, at every moment, to say to you: "I am dissatisfied with you, leave me"; look at her like this, and she will give you the same poetic sensation as when she was a bride.

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You cannot but want to understand the pettiness of the will of one who lives in society, without any aspiration except for small daily calculations.

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Like the forces of nature, the force of passion proves how great are the obstacles it crushes, obstacles it removes with fury.

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For the working man every war is harmful; for him, only the war waged in order to repel the enemies from the borders of the homeland is useful.

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It is absurd to take up a thing, when you do not have enough strength for it. You will spoil that thing and your deed will appear as villainy.

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Goodness and rationality are two essentially identical terms: what is good from the theoretical point of view of rationality is also good from a practical point of view, and vice versa - what is good is inevitably also rational.

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He who does good to others is good; he who does harm to others is evil. If we unite these simple truths in a conclusion we will have: "a man is only good when, for his own good, he does things pleasing to others; a man is evil when he pleases himself by causing trouble to other people."

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To betray your country you must have an incredibly low soul.

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Human activity is empty and meaningless when there is no idea in life.

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Where there is no life, there is no idea, where there is no infinite diversity, there is no life.

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All that is true and good is achieved by struggle and by the loss of men who have sacrificed themselves in preparing this ideal; and the best future must be prepared likewise.

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There are cases where the harm of the prohibited is much greater than the harm of the prohibition. In such cases, the measures of force are justified by reason and prescribed by conscience, provided, of course, that they are not more severe or embarrassing than necessary to obtain benefits.

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They say that a trip is the best way to learn everything: it's true, how true! How much you can learn from here.

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Respect for scientists is only a variant of respect for science, love of knowledge, love of truth, namely, a transfer of only these feelings to various people.

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The power of talent lies in the truth: misdirection destroys the strongest talent.

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There is only one happiness in life beyond any doubt, and that is to live for others.

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Wealth is something you can live happily without. But well-being is a necessary thing for happiness.

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The welfare of a society declines because of the existence of ignorant, immoral or lazy people in that society; these bad qualities of men can be removed only in two ways: by seeing that every person benefits from a proper education, and by keeping man from poverty.

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Without the feelings of a citizen, a male child, growing up, becomes a male being of middle age, but does not become a man, or at least does not become a man of noble character.

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Good is a high degree of benefit, and it is like a very useful benefit.

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If civic motives are excluded from my circle of observation, from my sphere of action, what is left for me to investigate? What is left for me to participate in? It remains only a tedious muddle of various people with personal concerns about the pocket, the stomach or the amusements.

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Life is so vast and multifaceted that man will always find in it what his strongest need demands.

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There is no need to prove that education is the greatest happiness for man. Without education, people are also rude and poor and unhappy.

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Education not only gives man wealth and strength: it also gives man spiritual pleasure, to which nothing compares. Every educated man realizes this, and will always admit that without education his life would have been very dull and miserable.

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Our civilization is only in its infancy, and we cannot imagine, even in the wildest form of imagination, to what power over nature it will lead us.

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We are fascinated by anything that manifests our ideal, the goal and object of our desires and love.

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Youth is the period of freshness of noble feelings.

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People flatter to lead under the guise of submission.

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Personal happiness is not possible without the happiness of others.

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It is better for man not to develop, than to develop without the influence of thought on public concerns, without the influence of feelings determined by participation in these concerns.

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He who has not felt how love provokes all the forces of man, does not know true love.

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When it comes to forceful measures to prevent damage, it goes without saying that you cannot prevent a small damage by causing a larger one.

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He who has not studied man will never know men deeply.

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He who is satisfied with everything does nothing good because goodness is impossible without the rejection of evil.

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Everyone knows that if husband and wife live in good understanding and happiness, then their common affection increases every year, and finally develops to such an extent that "they cannot live without each other."

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Knowledge begets love: the more you know science, the more you love it.

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Health can never lose its value in the eyes of man, because it is bad to live in comfort and luxury without being healthy.

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Without war, no nation will free itself from foreign rule.