Dmitri Quotes & Sayings

The establishment of a law, moreover, does not take place when the first thought of it takes form, or even when its significance is recognised, but only when it has been confirmed by the results of the experiment. — Dmitri Mendeleev

We rarely know who our ancestors were. Who can even remember the names of their great-grandparents? They have vanished into the dim and distant past — Dmitri Volkogonov

Elena scowled - the day she let Dmitri give her orders was the day ice-skating became a regular activity in hell. — Nalini Singh

We could live at the present day without a Plato, but a double number of Newtons is required to discover the secrets of nature, and to bring life into harmony with the laws of nature. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Knowing how contented, free, and joyful is life in the world of science, one fervently wishes that many would enter its portals. — Dmitri Mendeleev

I live in the USSR, work actively and count naturally on the worker and peasant spectator. If I am not comprehensible to them I should be deported. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Dogmatism grew from the soil of simplistic and frequently wrong concepts. Dogmatism is like a ship that has run aground: the waves run, the ship stays put, but the impression of movement persists — Dmitri Volkogonov

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. — Dmitri A. Borgmann

Stravinsky the composer I worship. Stravinsky the thinker I despise. — Dmitri Shostakovich

We should think more about it, and accustom ourselves to the thought of death. We can't allow the fear of death to creep up on us unexpectedly. We have to make the fear familiar, and one way is to write about it. I don't think writing and thinking about death is characteristic only of old men. I think that if people began thinking about death sooner, they'd make fewer foolish mistakes. — Dmitri Shostakovich

When he'd been younger and first starting to feel the urge to rut with females - and before he'd grown up to the point where many of the opposite sex found him irresistible - he'd tried to court girls by bringing them meat and shiny things. It turned out he'd scared them.
"Most women and girls," Dmitri had told him, "don't know what to do when a man drops a hunk of raw meat in their hands. — Nalini Singh

Flirt with him if you want, Honor, but you're mine. — Nalini Singh

Pleasures flit by - they are only for yourself; work leaves a mark of long-lasting joy, work is for others. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Name the eight men who made the final out in games that sent the Mets to the playoffs. Joe Torre, September 24, 1969. Glenn Beckert, October 1, 1973. Chico Walker, September 17, 1986. Lance Parrish, September 22, 1988. Dmitri Young, October 4, 1999. Keith Lockhart, September 27, 2000. Josh Willingham, September 18, 2006. Jay Bruce, September 26, 2015. — Greg W. Prince

I don't know what will become of this piece. Our brave critics will no doubt charge me with imitating Ravel's Bolero. Too bad - this is how I hear war. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to do something reasonable. — Richelle Mead

If all the elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights, a periodic repetition of properties is obtained. This is expressed by the law of periodicity. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Art destroys silence. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I'm a planner. I like to know what's coming, that way I can figure out a way to deal with it."
He shot her a wink. "I wasna planned, and you handled that situation well."
It was a fact, but then again, who could ever prepare for a man like Dmitri? — Donna Grant

What? You think your White Knight's going to charge in and save the day? Not fucking likely. Nic's locked up far away from anywhere anyone would ever even think to look. And Dmitri knows all about Daniel. The only reason he's not strung up in a cave somewhere is because we don't want to call any more attention to ourselves. Daniel's out there hunting alone, and thanks to you his mind's jacked. He'll fold.
- Luc to Sarah. — Angela B. Wade

The most all penetrating spirit before which will open the possibility of tilting not tables, but planets, is the spirit of free human inquiry. Believe only in that. — Dmitri Mendeleev

I don't think that Prokofiev ever treated me seriously as a composer; he considered only Stravinsky a rival and never missed a chance to take a shot at him. I remember once he started telling me some vile story about Stravinsky. I cut him off. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Bluebell," she said, remembering from Erotique. "Pretty name."
"I call Dmitri Dark Overlord."
"Shae," Dmitri said and the female vampire rose at once to walk quickly into the house. "Now, pretty Bluebell" - another languid stroke across her skin - "tell the Overlord what you discovered. — Nalini Singh

It's about the people, who have stopped believing because the cup of evil has run over. — Dmitri Shostakovich

A flaw does not make a man worthless," Raphael had once said to Dmitri. "Else I would've been discarded long ago. — Nalini Singh

Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Many consider that Shostakovich is the greatest 20th-century composer. In his 15 symphonies, 15 quartets, and in other works he demonstrated mastery of the largest and most challenging forms with music of great emotional power and technical invention ... All his works are marked by emotional extremes - tragic intensity, grotesque and bizarre wit, humour, parody, and savage sarcasm. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Just what does a virgin wife have to do to get debauched? Teena really wanted to know. Offering herself hadn't worked. Telling her husband he would be her one and only seemed to set off a state of panic. Would she have to tie Dmitri down and have her way with him? — Eve Langlais

Ever had a woman say no to you, Dmitri?"
"Once." He turned the corner with a smile that made her want to cup his face, trace those beautiful lips with her own. "I married her. — Nalini Singh

Music is good, not evil. Poetry is good, not evil. Primitive, but oh, so true! — Dmitri Shostakovich

What can be considered human emotions? Surely not only lyricism, sadness, tragedy? Doesn't laughter also have a claim to that lofty title? I want to fight for the legitimate right of laughter in serious music. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I will argue that five features are present in a wide range of genres, Western and non-Western, past and present, and that they jointly contribute to a sense of tonality: 1. Conjunct melodic motion. Melodies tend to move by short distances from note to note. 2. Acoustic consonance. Consonant harmonies are preferred to dissonant harmonies, and tend to be used at points of musical stability. 3. Harmonic consistency. The harmonies in a passage of music, whatever they may be, tend to be structurally similar to one another. 4. Limited macroharmony. I use the term "macroharmony" to refer to the total collection of notes heard over moderate spans of musical time. Tonal music tends to use relatively small — Dmitri Tymoczko

I write music, it's performed. After all, my music says it all. It doesn't need historical and hysterical commentaries. In the long run, any words about music are less important than the music. — Dmitri Shostakovich

In response to a plea in early 1941 from his colleague and friend, the writer Marietta Shaginyan, who was newly infatuated with the Piano Quintet and its creator, Mickhail Zoshchenko drafted for her a portrait of the Shostakovich he knew, a deeply complex individual:
"It seemed to you that he is "frail, fragile, withdrawn, an infinitely direct, pure child." That is so. But if it were only so, then great art (as with him) would never be obtained. He is exactly what you say he is, plus something else - he is hard, acid, extremely intelligent, strong perhaps, despotic and not altogether good-natured (although cerebrally good-natured).
That is the combination in which he must be seen. And then it may be possible to understand his art to some degree.
In him, there are great contradictions. In him, one quality obliterates the other. It is conflict in the highest degree. It is almost a catastrophe."
Quoted in Laurel Fay: Shostakovich, a Life. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Sara held up a hand. 'How exactly did you "decline" his offer?'
'By slitting his throat. — Nalini Singh

Work, look for peace and calm in work: you will find it nowhere else. — Dmitri Mendeleev

No one nor anything can silence me. — Dmitri Mendeleev

We must expect the discovery of many as yet unknown elements-for example, elements analogous to aluminum and silicon- whose atomic weight would be between 65 and 75. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Stravinsky is one of the greatest composers of our time and I truly love many of his works. ( ... ) The marvellous composer has invariably been at the centre of my attention, and I not only studied and listened to his music, but I played it and made my own transcriptions as well. — Dmitri Shostakovich

The scent of the sea, a wild turbulent storm, crashing into her mind.
Elena, why is Dmitri naked? — Nalini Singh

Prokofiev and I never did become friends, probably because Prokofiev was not inclined towards friendly relations in general. He was a hard man and didn't seem interested in anything than himself and his music. — Dmitri Shostakovich

You're not useless. You're a hunky bite of sex and I'm not sure if Dmitri swings both ways. — Nalini Singh

Torture is a good way to get people to talk but a poor method of finding out the truth; people confess whether there is any reality to the confession or not.

-Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad — M T Anderson

Studying Mahler changed many things in my tastes as a composer. Mahler & Berg are my favourite composers even today, as opposed to Hindemith, say, a Krenek and Milhaud whom I liked when I was young but cooled towards rapidly. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Don't touch her, he growled.
There was a note in his voice that would of scared me if it had been directed toward me. He shoved me behind him, putting his body protectively in front of mine with my back to the table. Guardians came at us from all directions,and Dimitri began dispatching them with the same deadly grace that had once made people call him a god. — Richelle Mead

If they drive God from earth, we shall shelter him underground - Dmitri Karamazov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

There is nothing in this world that I fear to say.
— Dmitri Mendeleev

The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body. — Dmitri Mendeleev

The majority of my symphonies are tombstones. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I can smell blood, Elena," Dmitri drawled, walking back into the room. "Are you trying to flirt? — Nalini Singh

Do you know where Jason is?" she asked Dmitri when they exited the morgue. Dmitri pressed the car remote to unlock the flame red Ferrari parked in the employees-only lot. "Tired of your Bluebell already?" A tendril of champagne circled around her senses, cut with something far harder. Never had she felt that harsh edge in Dmitri's scent. She pitied the woman he took to his bed today.
"Yeah, that's it. I'm building a harem. — Nalini Singh

It is surely indisputable that no single leader in the twentieth century exerted as great an influence on the course of world history as Lenin. — Dmitri Volkogonov

Contact would hurt, might be fatal, and yet she couldn't stop herself. Obsession or compulsion, she didn't know, but she did know that before this was over, she'd either end up in Dmitri's bed ... or one of them would bleed darkest red. — Nalini Singh

He swallowed again. "Why?"
When I opened my mouth to answer, my lips started trembling - from nerves or regret I don't know - and it took a few seconds to actually force the words out. "Because you have to find Nicholas. And I can't handle that right now. I know I said I could, but I can't." Breathing as deeply as I could, I took Daniel's closeness inside me, feeling all the while like I was on the edge of suffocating. "I'm about to fall apart, and I need time."
"I need you."
"You need me to kill-"
"No!" Daniel's face flushed, and he fixed his mouth shut, inhaling rapidly through his nose while trying to regain control. "You aren't going anywhere near Dmitri. Not ever. He's my responsibility. — Angela B. Wade

If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground.
The Brothers Karamazov
Mitya (Dmitri) to Aloysha who visits him in prison, Book XI - Ivan, Chapter 4 - A Hymn and a Secret. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something. — Dmitri Shostakovich

What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I was a guest in the home of a conductor when I was in my early twenties. They turned on the gramophone and played a popular record of a foxtrot. I liked the foxtrot, but I didn't like the way it was played. I confided my opinion to the host, who suddenly said, 'Ah, so you don't like the way it's played? All right, if you want, write down the number by heart and orchestrate it and I'll play it. That is, of course, if you can do it and in a given amount of time: I'm giving you an hour. if you're really a genius, you should be able to write it in an hour.' I did it in 45 minutes. — Dmitri Shostakovich

A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. Any prelude or fugue of Bach can be played at any tempo, with or without rhythmic nuances, and it will still be great music. That's how music should be written, so that no-one, no matter how philistine, can ruin it. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I'll admit that writing doesn't always come, but I'm totally against walking around looking at the sky when you're experiencing a block, waiting for inspiration to strike you. Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov didn't like each other and agreed on very few things, but they were of one opinion on this: you had to write constantly. If you can't write a major work, write minor trifles. If you can't write at all, orchestrate something. — Dmitri Shostakovich

After they were both done, the pile of knives and guns on the coffee table looked like they'd cleaned out an armory. I think we have a problem, Dmitri. — Nalini Singh

I have achieved an inner freedom. — Dmitri Mendeleev

All revolutions are bloody. The October Revolution was bloodless, but it was only the beginning — Dmitri Volkogonov

Fine. But remember, little rabbit, not a word to anyone." He moved close enough that the dark heat of him lapped against her in a quiet threat that made her glad for the blade. "I'm not a nice man when I'm angry."
She held her position, a ragged attempt to erase the humiliation of the panic attack. "I'm fairly certain you're not a nice man at all."
His answer was a slow smile that whispered of silk sheets, erotic whispers, and sweat-damp skin. The unhidden intent of it had her heart slamming hard against her ribs. "No" she said. Voice raw.
"A challenge." He wasn't touching her and yet she felt caressed by a thousand ropes of fur, soft and lush and unmistakably sexual. "I accept — Nalini Singh

No law of nature, however general, has been established all at once; its recognition has always been preceded by many presentiments. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Why do they [Americans] quarrel, why do they hate Negroes, Indians, even Germans, why do they not have science and poetry commensurate with themselves, why are there so many frauds and so much nonsense? I cannot soon give a solution to these questions ... It was clear that in the United States there was a development not of the best, but of the middle and worst sides of European civilization; the notorious general voting, the tendency to politics ... all the same as in Europe. A new dawn is not to be seen on this side of the ocean. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri's nerves calmed as he walked through the hedgerow maze, easily finding his way to the centre, sitting awhile.
He had walked the grounds three times, before he finally went into the graveyard, looking for Sveta's grave. It was easy to find. Easier since he had been to it every night since her passing. When he closed his eyes, he could still see her, strawberry hair blowing in the afternoon autumn wind, face flushed with laughter, eyes sparkling.
She'd been a plain girl too. But she'd loved him. — Carmen Dominique Taxer

Badgering a colleague doesn't come from a fit of pique, it comes from an organic quality of the soul. And a mean soul will inevitably be reflected in music. Wagner is a convincing example of that, but far from the only one. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I don't think that either self-deprecation or self-aggrandizement is among the defining qualities of an artist ... Beethoven could have been forgiven if his symphonies had gone to his head. Gretchaninoff could also be forgiven if his Dobrinya Nikititch went to his head. But neither one could be forgiven for writing a piece that was amoral, servile, the work of a flunky. — Dmitri Shostakovich

The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights. — Dmitri Mendeleev

I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper. — Dmitri Mendeleev

It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man - social and political - and to the entire universe as a whole. — Dmitri Mendeleev

The best way to hold on to something is to pay no attention to it. The things you love too much perish. You have to treat everything with irony, especially the things you hold dear. There's more of a chance then that they'll survive. — Dmitri Shostakovich

The edifice of science not only requires material, but also a plan. Without the material, the plan alone is but a castle in the air-a mere possibility; whilst the material without a plan is but useless matter. — Dmitri Mendeleev

When the elements are arranged in vertical columns according to increasing atomic weight, so that the horizontal lines contain analogous elements again according to increasing atomic weight, an arrangement results from which several general conclusions may be drawn. — Dmitri Mendeleev

Mrs. Mendeleyev hitchhiked with young Dmitri four thousand miles to St. Petersburg - that's equivalent to travelling from London to Equatorial Guinea - and deposited him at the Institute of Pedagogy. — Bill Bryson

Illium seems far too pretty to be dangerous." Dmitri's male beauty, by contrast, was a darker, edgier thing.
"No one ever expects him to take out a blade and slice off their balls," he said with lethal amusement in his tone as he drove them toward the George
Washington Bridge. "He does it with such grace, too. — Nalini Singh

A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic weights. — Dmitri Mendeleev

The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an apparent periodicity of properties. — Dmitri Mendeleev

I want you to say it. 'I am so beautiful and sexy that I make Dmitri come in his dreams for me.' Say it." He hissed in her ear. — Fiona Murphy

Naasir stretched lazily before settling back into his previous position. "I'm old enough now, and I want someone to play with like you play with Janvier and Raphael does with Elena. Even Dmitri plays with Honor." This seemed to fascinate him. "The rules are secret in each game. I want to have secret rules with a woman who . . ." A long pause. "A woman who knows me, understands what I am, and who wants to have secret rules with me. — Nalini Singh

Now I can't abide rudeness, even in so called great artists. Rudeness and cruelty are the qualities i hate most. Rudeness and cruelty are always connected, I feel. One example out of many is Stalin. — Dmitri Shostakovich

In his searches, Schwall noticed something else, though at first he didn't know what to make of it: A surprisingly large number of the people pulled in by the big Wall Street banks to build the technology for high-frequency trading were Russians. "If you went to LinkedIn and looked at one of these Russian guys, you would see he was linked to all the other Russians," said Schwall. "I'd go to find Dmitri and I'd also find Misha and Vladimir and Tolstoy or whatever." The Russians came not from finance but from telecom, physics, medical research, university math departments, and a lot of other useful fields. The big Wall Street firms had become machines for turning analytically minded Russians into high-frequency traders. — Michael Lewis

Elements which are similar as regards their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (eg. Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (eg. K, Ru, Cs). — Dmitri Mendeleev

The real geniuses know where their writing has to be good and where they can get away with some mediocrity. — Dmitri Shostakovich

When Naasir was yet a child, Dmitri had told him he must learn as many languages as possible, so no one could keep secrets from him. This wasn't the first time that advice had held Naasir in good stead. — Nalini Singh

If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth. — Dmitri Shostakovich

I feel eternal pain for those who were killed by Hitler , but I feel no less pain for those killed on Stalin 's orders. I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot, or starved to death. — Dmitri Shostakovich

Never in my life did I lend the unfortunate Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov (for he is unfortunate now, in any case) the sum of three thousand roubles today, or any other money, never, never! I swear to it by all that is holy in our world. Khokhlakov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When I saw you fall ... "
"You thought, 'Wow, she's a loser. — Richelle Mead

My dog didn't like me very much. My first dog, Dmitri, was a poodle. I used to think Dmitri was something I could play with and ride. I tried to ride a poodle. And then he bit me. — Jennifer Aniston

I will love you even when I am dust on the wind. — Nalini Singh

I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault. — Dmitri Shostakovich

There exists everywhere a medium in things, determined by equilibrium. — Dmitri Mendeleev

That's what I was supposed to say... — Richelle Mead

Football is the ballet of the masses. — Dmitri Shostakovich

In my time," he said, "they believed in witches. Are you a witch, Honor, that you make me say these things to you?"
Causing him to rip open wounds that had stayed safely scabbed over for so long that, most of the time, he managed to forget they existed.
Her hands, so very, very gentle, continued to hold his face as she tugged him down until their foreheads touched.
"I'm no witch, Dmitri. If I was, I'd know how to fix you. — Nalini Singh

He'd never forget what Naasir had said to him when Dmitri yelled that he didn't intend to bury another child and that Naasir needed to have a care for his life.
"Am I a person, Dmitri? Will you be sad if I die?"
Hardened and cruel though he'd become, the innocent question had shaken him. "Yes," he'd said, as honest in his answer as Naasir had been in his question. "You are a person. You are Naasir. I'll lose a piece of me if you die and it's a piece I'll never get back."
Naasir had stared at him for a long time before coming over to hug him. "Okay, Dmitri. I'm sorry. I didn't know I was a person before. — Nalini Singh