Gaito Gazdanov Quotes & Sayings

And only now am I beginning to think that perhaps not all is lost. — Gaito Gazdanov

The justice of any single commandment cannot be proven logically in an irrefutable manner, and there is no moral law which is binding under all conditions without exception. Ethics, generally, exist only as far as we are willing to accept them.
(from 'The Specter of Alexander Wolf') — Gaito Gazdanov

When I wake up every morning, I think to myself, Today my life will begin in earnest. — Gaito Gazdanov

Your gift for thinking interferes with you: without it, of course, you'd be happy. — Gaito Gazdanov

I knew by experience and by observing many of my friends the baneful, destructive effect which participation in a war has on almost every man.
(from 'The Specter of Alexander Wolf') — Gaito Gazdanov

Among all my recollections, among all the numberless sensations of my life, the memory of the lone murder I had committed weighed heaviest on my mind.
(from 'The Specter of Alexander Wolf') — Gaito Gazdanov

When I thought of myself, of the feelings I had, of the things I thought I understood so well, I imagined myself somehow abstractly, because that other visual recollection was painful and unpleasant for me. No sooner would I call to mind my physical appearance than the finest, most lyrical, wonderful visions would vanish in an instant - so monstrous was its disparity with the intangible, glittering world that existed in my imagination. It seemed to me that there could be no greater contrast than that between my inner life and my outward appearance; sometimes I even imagined that I was trapped in someone else's strange, almost hateful body. — Gaito Gazdanov