Mikhail Lermontov

I was not born for happiness. Men like me are born for suffering.

I threw a world away for the sake of one book, and cursed the stupidity of the one who had brought me to this constraint.

A man who can entertain two opposing thoughts at once, but still retain the ability to function, is a hero.

I love everything that cannot answer me – the sky, birds, plants, abstract exercise in calculus; I love everything that has no human eyes – dogs, cats, horses. I love the fact that I will die, my room, the morning breeze, contemplation of things eternal gives me, and Hulak.

I am the one who makes it my business to be delighted in people, and yet nothing ever goes right for me in a relationship.

The future is a dream; the past is the twilight; only the present is reality.

I assure you, my experiences have not been what one would call favorable...

I don't know if it is life that is wrong, or I am; but as it is we won't get along for long.

Love? What is love? It’s a sign of weakness in people who have strong character!

Isn't it strange that combinations of musical sounds that have been heard for hundreds of years by millions of people, remains beautiful and gives pleasure? And here Paniev sits and composes something that, to my way of thinking, is delightful, and yet it doesn't touch me... Isn't that strange?

Sometimes I get tired of being alive all the time; then curiosity gets the better of me and I have a period of respite.

A clever and educated man cannot seriously appreciate woman’s chatter; one should only turn women’s wit to his own account.