“Have I not grown old-fashioned by now, have I not lost my strength?”

Original: Да не устарел ли, не ослабел ли уж я? — Even an established master could wonder whether age had diminished his powers. · Question to Sergey Glinka, recalled in contemporaries’ memoirs (Russian)

• Age
• Humility
• Writing

“Sergey Nikolayevich, there are not many of us old acquaintances left now.”

Original: Сергей Николаевич! нас, старых знакомых, теперь немного осталось. — A spare acknowledgement of age and the steadily thinning circle of old friends. · Conversation with Sergey Glinka, recalled in contemporaries’ memoirs (Russian)

• Age
• Friendship
• Mortality

“I am like a sailor who has escaped disaster only because he has never ventured far out to sea.”

Original: Ведь я то же, что иной моряк, с которым оттого только и беды не случалось, что он не хаживал далеко в море. — At a celebration of his long career, Krylov answered praise with striking self-deprecation. · Conversation at his literary jubilee, recorded by P. A. Pletnev, 1838 (Russian)

• Fame
• Humility
• Wit

“I've read it. I have neither the time nor the inclination to correct or revise it.”

Original: Прочел, ни поправлять, ни выправлять ни времени, ни охоты нет. — A characteristically dry refusal to spend time polishing someone else's account of his life. · Reply to M. E. Lobanov about a biography, recalled in contemporaries’ memoirs (Russian)

• Humour
• Privacy
• Writing

“Only those are worthy of love who carry within themselves the reason for being loved.”

Original: Ибо те одни достойны быть любимы, которые в себе самих заключают причину, побуждающую их любить. — Affection, in this view, should arise from qualities genuinely present in the person loved. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Character
• Love
• Wisdom

“Love is pictured with a blindfold; friendship removes it, looking carefully before it chooses.”

Original: Любовь пишется с завязанными глазами; но у дружества снимается сия завязка; дружество рассматривает прежде, нежели избирает. — A neat distinction between love's blindness and friendship's more deliberate judgement. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Friendship
• Love
• Wisdom

“Friendship, then, should rest on the strongest foundation: respect, strengthened by knowledge of another's worth, a foundation that cannot be shaken.”

Original: Итак, должно утверждать дружество на крепчайшем основании; почтение, подкрепляемое знанием достоинств; вот основание, которое никогда не может поколебаться. — He makes lasting friendship depend on informed respect rather than passing affection. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Character
• Friendship
• Respect

“In friendship, as in love, we should guard feeling and taste from growing dull; such caution is permissible.”

Original: В дружбе, как в любви, должно щадить чувства и вкус от притупления: сия предосторожность позволена. — Friendship, like love, needs care if familiarity is not to blunt feeling. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Care
• Friendship
• Love