Ilyich Quotes & Sayings

In the nineteenth century, cholera struck the most modern, prosperous cities in the world, killing rich and poor alike, from Paris and London to New York City and New Orleans. In 1836, it felled King Charles X in Italy; in 1849, President James Polk in New Orleans; in 1893, the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg. — Sonia Shah

Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul's moods. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Introduction I learned about a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn't one of them. Although I was given a dry, leathery corpse to dissect in my first term, that was solely a way to learn about human anatomy. Our textbooks had almost nothing on aging or frailty or dying. How the process unfolds, how people experience the end of their lives, and how it affects those around them seemed beside the point. The way we saw it, and the way our professors saw it, the purpose of medical schooling was to teach how to save lives, not how to tend to their demise. The one time I remember discussing mortality was during an hour we spent on The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy's classic novella. — Atul Gawande

Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The muse doesn't come without being called. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The task of a truly revolutionary party is not to declare that it is impossible to renounce all compromises, but to be able, through all compromises, when they are unavoidable, to remain true to its principles, to its class, to its revolutionary purpose, to its task of paving the way for revolution and educating the mass of the people for victory in the revolution. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers' cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

What tormented Ivan Ilyich most," Tolstoy writes, "was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result." Ivan Ilyich has flashes of hope that maybe things will turn around, but as he grows weaker and more emaciated he knows what is happening. He lives in mounting anguish and fear of death. But death is not a subject that his doctors, friends, or family can countenance. That is what causes him his most profound pain. — Atul Gawande

During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the "consolation" of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Socialism means keeping account of everything. You will have socialism if you take stock of every piece of iron and cloth. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Handel is only fourth rate. He's not even interesting. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it. The struggle of the workers becomes a class struggle only when all the foremost representatives of the entire working class of the whole country are conscious of themselves as a single working class and launch a struggle that is directed, not against individual employers, but against the entire class of capitalists and against the government that supports that class. Only when the individual worker realizes that he is a member of the entire working class, only when he recognises the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire bourgeoisie and the entire government, does his struggle become a class struggle. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Mozart is the highest, the culminating point that beauty has attained in the sphere of music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest (inspiration) does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Music possesses much richer means of expression and it is a more subtle medium for translating the 1000 shifting moments of the feelings of the soul. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

I feel I shall live a long time. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Where the heart does not enter; there can be no music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In the depths of his soul Ivan Ilyich knew that he was dying ... he simply did not, he could not possibly understand it. The example of a syllogism he had studied in Kiesewetter's logic - Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal
had seemed to him all his life to be correct only in relation to Caius, but by no means himself. For the man Caius, man in general, it was perfectly correct; but he was not Caius and not man in general, he had always been quite, quite separate from all other human beings ... And Caius is indeed mortal, and it's right that he die, but for me, Vanya, Ivan Ilyich, with all my feelings and thoughts
for me it's another matter. And it cannot be that I should die. It would be too terrible.
So it felt to him. — Leo Tolstoy

Brahms stayed an extra day to hear my [Fifth] Symphony and was very kind ... I like his honesty and open-mindedness. Neither he nor the players liked the finale, which I also think rather horrible. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I am bound to accord you, in the name of free speech, the full right to shout, lie and write to your heart's content. But you are bound to grant me, in the name of freedom of association, the right to enter into, or withdraw from, association with people advocating this or that view. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

I like the plot of The Nutcracker - not at all. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

America, like a few other nations, has become characteristic for the depth of the abyss that divide a handful of brutal millionaires who are stagnating in a mire of luxury, and millions of laboring starving men and women who are always staring want in the face. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

We decided it here. Ilyich [Lenin] believed that we shouldn't leave the Whites a live banner to rally around, especially under the present difficult circumstances. — Yakov Sverdlov

Even in the works of the greatest master, the organic sequence can fail and then a skillful join must be made. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I have put my whole soul into this work [The Pathetique Symphony] ... You cannot imagine what joy I feel at the thought that my days are not yet over and that I may still accomplish much. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

But suppose, for the sake of argument, free competition, without any sort of monopoly, would develop capitalism trade more rapidly. Is it not a fact that the more rapidly trade and capitalism develop, the greater is the concentration of production and capital which gives rise to monopoly? — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Official science tried, by a conspiracy of silence, to kill the works of Marx, who by a theoretical and historical analysis of capitalism had proved that free competition gives rise to the concentration of production, which, in turn, at a certain stage of development, leads to monopoly. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

To regret the past, to hope in the future, and never to be satisfied with the present: that is what I spend my whole life doing — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Competition becomes transformed into monopoly. The result is immense progress in the socialisation of production. In particular, the process of technical invention and improvement becomes socialised. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

There are no morals in politics; the is only experience. A scoundrel may be of use because he is a scoundrel — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The creative process is like music which takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Madam, you ask me how I compose. I compose sitting down. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

I assure you that I work with these people. I sometimes award them with state prizes or decorations for their achievements in various fields. We have absolutely normal relations, and I don't see anything out of the ordinary here. They say that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a homosexual. Truth be told, we don't love him because of that, but he was a great musician, and we all love his music. So what? — Vladimir Putin

A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

What I have set down in a moment of ardour I must then critically examine. Sometimes I must do myself violence before I can mercilessly erase things thought out with love. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Mozart is the musical Christ. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Attention, must be devoted principally to raising the workers to the level of revolutionaries; it is not our task to descend to the level of the 'working masses'. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

When the examination was over, the doctor looked at his watch, and then Praskovya Fyodorovna informed Ivan Ilyich that it must of course be as he liked, but she had sent today for a celebrated doctor, and that he would examine him, and have a consultation with Mihail Danilovich (that was the name of his regular doctor). 'Don't oppose it now, please. This I'm doing entirely for my own sake,' she said ironically, meaning it to be understood that she was doing it all for his sake, and was only saying this to give him no right to refuse her request. He lay silent, knitting his brows. He felt that he was hemmed in by such a tangle of falsity that it was hard to disentangle anything from it. Everything she did for him was entirely for her own sake, and she told him she was doing for her own sake what she actually was doing for her own sake as something so incredible that he would take it as meaning the opposite. — Leo Tolstoy

Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Capitalism in its imperialist stage leads directly to the most comprehensive socialisation of production; it, so to speak, drags the capitalists, against their will and consciousness, into some sort of a new social order, a transitional one from complete free competition to complete socialisation. Production becomes social, but appropriation remains private. The social means of production remain the private property of a few. The general framework of formally recognised free competition remains, and the yoke of a few monopolists on the rest of the population becomes a hundred times heavier, more burdensome and intolerable. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

... You see, my dear friend, I am made up of contradictions, and I have reached a very mature age without resting upon anything positive, without having calmed my restless spirit either by religion or philosophy. Undoubtedly I should have gone mad but for music. Music is indeed the most beautiful of all Heaven's gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls. It is not the straw to which the drowning man clings; but a true friend, refuge, and comforter, for whose sake life is worth living — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

All official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Exchange, fair or unfair,always presupposes and includes the rule of the bourgeoisie. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

I sit down to the piano regularly at nine-o'clock in the morning and Mesdames les Muses have learned to be on time for that rendezvous. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In the history of modern socialism this is a phenomenon, that the strife of the various trends within the socialist movement has from national become international. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Only music clarifies, reconciles, and consoles. But it is not a straw just barely clutched at. It is a faithful friend, protector, and comforter, and for its sake alone, life in this world is worth living. Who knows, perhaps in heaven there will be no music. So let us live on the earth while we still have life! — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of the world by a handful of "advanced" countries. And this "booty" is shared between two or — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

It is already a great thing if the main ideas and general outline of a work come without any racking of brains, as the result of that supernatural and inexplicable force we call inspiration. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Ivan Iylich saw that he was dying, and was in continual despair.
At the bottom of his heart Ivan Ilyich knew that he was dying; but so far from growing used to the idea, he simply did not grasp it - he was utterly unable to grasp it.
The example of the syllogism that he had learned in Kiseveter's logic - Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal - had seemed to him all his life correct only as regards Caius, but not at all regards himself. In that case it was a question of Caius, a man, an abstract man, and it was perfectly true, but he was not Caius, and was not an abstract man; he had always been a creature quite, quite different from all the others. — Leo Tolstoy

Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

And is it not sects, bodies of definite, uncompromising principles, that lead us into revolutions? — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

It is more pleasant and useful to undertake the experience of revolution than to write about it. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

We are not utopians, we do not "dream" of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants". — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

It is more pleasant and useful to go through the 'experience of the revolution' than to write about it. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

I can't listen to music too often. It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Translated into ordinary human language this means that the development of capitalism has arrived at a stage when, although commodity production still "reigns" and continues to be regarded as the basis of economic life, it has in reality been undermined and the bulk of the profits go to the "geniuses" of financial manipulation. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Sometimes I observe with curiosity that uninterrupted activity which, independent of the subject of any conversation I may be carrying on, continues its course in that department of my brain that is devoted to music. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

If that condition of mind and soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without intermission, no artist could survive it. The strings would break and the instrument be shattered into fragments. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

Capitalists can buy themselves out of any crisis, so long as they make the workers pay — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

After the last notes of Gotterdammerung I felt as though I had been let out of prison. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State. Lenin, "State and Revolution", — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

This transformation of competition into monopoly is one of the most important - if not the most important - phenomena of modern capitalist economy, — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

As we medical students saw it, the failure of those around Ivan Ilyich to offer comfort or to acknowledge what is happening to him was a failure of character and culture. — Atul Gawande

One man with a gun can control 100 without one ... Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

and Ivan Ilyich was left alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrated more and more deeply into his whole being. With — Leo Tolstoy

We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavoring to meet it halfway, we easily become indirect and apathetic. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

What I need is to believe in myself again - for my faith has been greatly undermined; it seems to me my role is over. — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a purely lyrical process. It is a musical confession of the soul, which unburdens itself through sounds just as a lyric poet expresses himself through poetry ... As the poet Heine said, 'Where words leave off, music begins.' — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Whereas Buddhists believe that the law of nature was discovered by Siddhartha Gautama, Communists believed that the law of nature was discovered by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The similarity does not end there. Like other religions, Communism too has its holy scripts and prophetic books, such as Marx's Das Kapital, which foretold that history would soon end with the inevitable victory of the proletariat. — Yuval Noah Harari

The story of Ivan Ilyich life was of the simplest, most ordinary and therefore most terrible. Tolstoy defines living an ordinary life as terrible - I really do have to agree! — Leo Tolstoy

They had supper and went away, and Ivan Ilyich was left alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrated more and more deeply into his whole being.
With this consciousness, and with physical pain besides the terror, he must go to bed, often to lie awake the greater part of the night. Next morning he had to get up again, dress, go to the law courts, speak, and write; or if he did not go out, spend at home those twenty-four hours a day each of which was a torture. And he had to live thus all alone on the brink of an abyss, with no one who understood or pitied him. — Leo Tolstoy

When Brahms is in extra good spirits, he sings, "The grave is my joy". — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky