Mikhail Quotes & Sayings

I will never give up politics. I've tried to give it up three times, but I never made it. Politics mobilizes me. I won't last long if I give it up. — Mikhail Gorbachev

My life has been immensely enriched by gay mentors, colleagues and friends, and any discrimination and persecution of gay people is unacceptable. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

There comes a moment in a young artist's life when he knows he has to bring something to the stage from within himself. He has to put in something in order to be able to take something. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

I think I got disappointed over the years about New York, about the States. You know, sometimes you go and visit Europe and see good old socialism in its good part! You see public concern about art, and young people's participation and young faces in the audience. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Out of life's storm I carried only a few ideas - and not one feeling. — Mikhail Lermontov

Unlike
in North America, however, there was no single
giant ice sheet that covered the entire northern half of the continent. The biggest ice sheet
covered all of Scandinavia and extended east as
far as the eastern shore of the White Sea today.
The Urals and parts of the Putorana Plateau in
northern Siberia were also heavily glaciated. In
between, however, and all the way to the Pacific
Coast, only small areas of the highest terrain had
much ice cover. The remainder was ice-free, but
with hundreds of meters of permafrost extending deep into the soil. This may seem counterintuitive, but it can be understood if we remember
that moisture available at cold temperatures is
what makes ice and snow, not the cold temperatures themselves. — Mikhail S. Blinnikov

I sleep well. It's the politicians who are to blame for failing to come to an agreement and resorting to violence. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

Love, like fire, goes out without fuel. — Mikhail Lermontov

Gods, my gods! How sad the earth is at eventide! How mysterious are the mists over the swamps. Anyone who has wandered in these mists, who has suffered a great deal before death, or flown above the earth, bearing a burden beyond his strength knows this. Someone who is exhausted knows this. And without regret he forsakes the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, and sinks into the arms of death with a light heart knowing that death alone . . . — Mikhail Bulgakov

I like everything to be dependable, heavy, English furniture. — Mikhail Khodorkovsky

It is a great honor for me to be presented the award by Mikhail Gorbachev and also to be acknowledged with the World Actress Award at the Women World Awards Gala 2005. — Teri Hatcher

One day we took each other by the hand and went for a walk in the evening. And we walked like that for our whole life. — Mikhail Gorbachev

In every State, the government is nothing but a permanent conspiracy on the part of the minority against the majority, which it enslaves and fleeces. — Mikhail Bakunin

What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars. — Mikhail Gorbachev

We have retreated from the perennial values. I don't think that we need any new values. The most important thing is to try to revive the universally known values from which we have retreated.
As a young man, I really took to heart the Communist ideals. A young soul certainly cannot reject things like justice and equality. These were the goals proclaimed by the Communists. But in reality that terrible Communist experiment brought about repression of human dignity. Violence was used in order to impose that model on society. In the name of Communism we abandoned basic human values. So when I came to power in Russia I started to restore those values; values of "openness" and freedom. — Mikhail Gorbachev

What of it? If I die, I die. It will be no great loss to the world, and I am thoroughly bored with life. I am like a man yawning at a ball; the only reason he does not go home to bed is that his carriage has not arrived yet. — Mikhail Lermontov

Love neither lends nor borrows; Love neither buys nor sells; but when it gives, it gives it s all; and when it takes, it takes its all. Its very taking is a giving. Its very giving is a taking. Therefore is it the same to-day, to-morrow and forevermore. — Mikhail Naimy

The darkness that had come in from the Mediterranean covered the city so detested by the procurator ... — Mikhail Bulgakov

Altogether bad,' the host concluded. 'As you will, but there's something not nice hidden in men who avoid wine, games, the society of charming women, table talk. Such people are either gravely ill or secretly hate everybody around them. True, there may be exceptions. Among persons sitting down with me at the banqueting table, there have been on occasion some extraordinary scoundrels! ... And so, let me hear your business. — Mikhail Bulgakov

Like Dvoretsky, I think that (all other things being equal), the analytical method of studying chess must give you a colossal advantage over the chess pragmatist, and that there can be no certainty in chess without analysis. I personally acquired these views from my sessions with Mikhail Botvinnik, and they laid the foundations of my chess-playing life. — Garry Kasparov

I have always defended my convictions and what I believed to be the truth. — Mikhail Khodorkovsky

It is sad to see a young man's fondest hopes and dreams shattered when the rose-colured veil is plucked away and he sees the actions and feelings of men for what they are. But he still has the hope of replacing his old illusions with others, just as fleeting, but also just as sweet. — Mikhail Lermontov

Theology created the fiction of Satan which represents the revolt if an infinite being against the existence of an absolute infinity, against God. — Mikhail Bakunin

In short, we can see Karpov as an exploiter of other people's ideas. His ability to use these ideas is not at issue, but he himself is about as fertile as a woman who has been sterilized is. — Mikhail Botvinnik

I felt somehow happy to be so high above the world - a childish feeling, I grant, but we can't help becoming children as we leave social conventions behind and come nearer to nature. All life's experience is shed from us and the soul becomes anew what it once was and will surely be again — Mikhail Lermontov

In actual fact, the utterly incompatible elements comprising Dostoevsky's material are distributed among several worlds and several autonomous consciousnesses; they are presented not within a single field of vision but within several fields of vision, each full and of equal worth; and it is not the material directly but these worlds, their consciousnesses with their individual fields of vision that combine in a higher unity, a unity, so to speak, of the second order, the unity of a polyphonic novel. — Mikhail Bakhtin

In Dostoevsky, two thoughts are already two people, for there are no thoughts belonging to no one and every thought represents an entire person. This — Mikhail Bakhtin

1872 the anarchist leader Mikhail Bakunin warned Karl Marx that Communists in power would be as oppressive as the aristocracy they replaced. After what has happened in Russia, can you honestly say Bakunin was wrong? — Ken Follett

When a body moves, it's the most revealing thing. Dance for a minute, and I'll tell you who you are. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Every country should conduct its own reforms, should develop its own model, taking into account the experience of other countries, whether close neighbours or far away countries. — Mikhail Gorbachev

Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love. You love
that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of Man.You are
the tree of Life. Beware of fractionating yourselves. Set not a fruit against a fruit, a leaf against a leaf, a bough against a bough; nor
set the stem against the roots; nor set the tree against the mother-
soil. That is precisely what you do when you love one part more than
the rest, or to the exclusion of the rest. No love is possible except
by the love of self. No self is real save the All-embracing Self.
Therefore is God all Love, because he loves himself. So long as you
are pained by Love, you have not found your real self, nor have you
found the golden key of Love. Because you love an ephemeral self, your
love is ephemeral. — Mikhail Naimy

In people's eyes I readPages of malice and sin. — Mikhail Lermontov

All the images of carnival are dualistic; they unite within themselves both poles of change and crisis: birth and death (the image of pregnant death), blessing and curse (benedictory carnival curses which call simultaneously for death and rebirth), praise and abuse, youth and old age, top and bottom, face and backside, stupidity and wisdom. — Mikhail Bakhtin

Too bad!' the feisty poet responded.
'Yes, too bad!' the stranger agreed, his eye flashing, and went on: 'But here is a question that is troubling me: if there is no God, then, one may ask, who governs human life and, in general, the whole order on earth?'
'Man governs it himself' Homeless angrily hastened to reply to this admittedly none-too-clear question.
'Pardon me,' the stranger responded gently, 'but in order to govern, one needs, after all, to have a precise plan for a certain, at least somewhat decent, length of time. Allow me to ask you, then, how can man govern, if he is not only deprived of the opportunity of making a plan for at least some ridiculously short period -well, say, a thousand years- but cannot even vouch for his own tomorrow? — Mikhail Bulgakov

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant ... has painfully affected the Soviet people, and shocked the international community. For the first time, we confront the real force of nuclear energy, out of control. — Mikhail Gorbachev

There is no such thing as a "general language," a language that is spoken by a general voice, that may be divorced from a specific saying, which is charged with particular overtones. Language, when it means, is somebody talking to somebody else, even when that someone else is one's own inner addressee. — Mikhail Bakhtin

Though representatives of many ethnic groups came together in the United States, English became their common language. Apparently, this was a natural choice. One can imagine what would have happened if members of each nation moving to the U.S. had spoken only their own tongues and refused to learn English. — Mikhail Gorbachev

Ah, professor, if only you had discovered a way of rejuvenating hair! Chapter 2 — Mikhail Bulgakov

In poetry, even discourse about doubts must be cast in a discourse that cannot be doubted. — Mikhail Bakhtin

Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country. — Mikhail Botvinnik

I am like a mariner born and bred on board a buccaneer brig whose soul has become so inured to storm and strife that if cast ashore he would weary and languish no matter how alluring the shady groves and how bright the gentle sun. — Mikhail Lermontov

I have observed that there always exists some strange relationship between the appearance of a man and his soul, as if with the loss of a limb, the soul lost one of its senses. — Mikhail Lermontov

There is only one superpower now and it doesn't know what to do with its status. As a result, we got Yugoslavia and Iraq, and the situation has only got worse. — Mikhail Gorbachev

I think the environmental problem will be the number one item on the agenda of the 21st century ... This is a problem that cannot be postponed. — Mikhail Gorbachev

The procurator studied the new arrival with avid, and slightly fearful eyes. It was the kind of look one gives someone one has heard of and thought a lot about, and whom one is meeting for the first time. — Mikhail Bulgakov

Death is so preoccupied with life, that is has no time for anything else. — Mikhail Turovsky

No one doing big business can avoid some contact with government agencies, regulators, and policy makers. — Mikhail Prokhorov

Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without ant errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless. — Mikhail Tal

I had to gain experience as I did not have a technical education. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

My goal was to avoid bloodshed. But unfortunately there was some bloodshed, after all. — Mikhail Gorbachev

The triumph of the analytical movement, which formed in the '30's and '40's, was precisely what earned the Soviet masters the acclaim of chessplayers the world over. Unfortunately, it must also be noted that, for today's chessmasters, the watchword is practicality. — Mikhail Botvinnik

Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa. — Mikhail Bakunin

Raven allowed her head to fall back against his shoulder with a slight sigh. "Did you kidnap me or rescue me?"
Strong white teeth gleamed at her, a predator's smile, a man's amusement. "Perhaps a little of both. — Christine Feehan

Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens. — Mikhail Tal

The Jews will become socialist colonisers with strong fists and sharp teeth, a strong national group within the Soviet family of nations. — Mikhail Kalinin

I shot with it a lot. I still do now. That is why I am hard of hearing. — Mikhail Kalashnikov

History is a capricious creature. It depends on who writes it. — Mikhail Gorbachev

Contemporary social democracy is what I believe is the right concept. — Mikhail Gorbachev

He who never hurries is always on time. — Mikhail Bulgakov

I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

I have Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to thank that a Russian writer can not only write anything he wants, but also publish it. — Vladimir Sorokin

You are not Dostoevsky,' said the woman ...
'You never can tell ... ' he answered.
'Dostoevsky is dead,' the woman said, a bit uncertainly.
'I protest!' he said with heat, 'Dostoevsky is immortal! — Mikhail Bulgakov

It was the least I could do after what you did for us," Gregori said. Mikhail graciously thanked each of the Lycan hunters for their help. Vikirnoff and Natalya along with Destiny and Nicolae immediately came over. Destiny had fought with the Lycans and she introduced her lifemate, his brother and Natalya as she led the other pack members over to the tables of food and drink. Fen knew immediately that Mikhail had planned for just that move. The pack respected Destiny's abilities and would relate to her and her family. Out of the corner of his eye he could see other Carpathian couples going up and introducing themselves to the pack members and engaging them in conversation. Mikhail inclined his head toward Fen. "I believe you two know one another." "We've certainly fought a few battles together now," Zev said, holding out his hand to Fen. — Christine Feehan

Understanding what and why did not work may be more instructive than celebrating our successes. — Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov

I fell in love with New York. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

We are beginning to see practical support. And this is a very significant sign of the movement towards a new era, a new age ... We see both in our country and elsewhere ... ghosts of the old thinking ... When we rid ourselves of their presence, we will be better able to move toward a new world order ... relying on the relevent mechanisms of the United Nations. — Mikhail Gorbachev

Discourse about the world merges with confessional discourse about oneself. — Mikhail Bakhtin

Cowardice is the most terrible of vices. — Mikhail Bulgakov

Priests, kings, statesmen, soldiers, bankers and public functionaries of all sorts; policemen, jailers and hangmen; capitalists, usurers, businessmen and property-owners; lawyers, economists and politicians - all of them, down to the meanest grocer, repeat in chorus the words of Voltaire, that if there were no God it would be necessary to invent Him. — Mikhail Bakunin

First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns. — Mikhail Tal

Shocked, Raven flung back her head to listen more intently. "The wolves are talking to you! How do I know that, Mikhail? How could I possibly know such a thing?"
He ruffled her hair lightly, affectionately. "You hang out with the wrong crowd."
He was rewarded with a bubble of laughter. It tugged at his heart, left him open and vulnerable.
"What is this?" she teased. "Lord of the manor picks up seventies slang?"
He grinned at her boyishly, mischievously. "Maybe I am the one hanging out with the wrong crowd."
"And maybe there's hope for you yet." She kissed his throat, his chin, the stubborn line of his blue-shadowed jaw. — Christine Feehan

But why don't you take him with you into the light?
He does not deserve the light, he deserves peace — Mikhail Bulgakov

I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player. — Mikhail Tal

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker. — Mikhail Bakunin

People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Most bad," the host concluded. "If you ask me, something sinister lurks in men who avoid wine, games, the company of lovely women, and dinnertime conversation. Such people are either gravely ill or secretly detest everyone around them. — Mikhail Bulgakov

The threat of environmental crisis is the 'international disaster key' to unlock the New World Order. — Mikhail Gorbachev

It's nice to hold on to a holiday midnight a little longer than usual — Mikhail Bulgakov

My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could. — Mikhail Gorbachev

I am not trying to do material which I cannot do full out. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Russia on its path has oftentimes discussed and overdiscussed what had happened earlier, instead of moving forward. The result is always the same: It is very difficult to move forward when you're looking backward. — Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Truth is not born nor is it to be found inside the head of an individual person, it is born between people collectively searching for truth, in the process of their dialogic interaction. — Mikhail Bakhtin

To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess. — Mikhail Tal

I am very sensitive to all form of music, painting, sculpting, dancing, and I love cinema also. For example if I look at the work of the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who happens to be a friend of mine, everything he does is inspiring to me. — Philippe Petit

Never ask for anything! Never for anything, and especially from those who are stronger than you. They'll make the offer themselves, and give everything themselves. — Mikhail Bulgakov

Montreal, this wonderful town ... Pearl of Canada, Pearl of the world. — Mikhail Gorbachev

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth. — Mikhail Bakunin

I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

People rarely die from love, but they are frequently born from it. — Mikhail Shishkin

The brick is neither here nor there,' interrupted the stranger in an imposing fashion, 'it never merely falls on someone's head from out of nowhere. In your case, I can assure you that a brick poses no threat whatsoever. You will die another kind of death.
'And you know just what that will be?' queried Berlioz with perfectly understandable irony, letting himself be drawn into a truly absurd conversation. 'And can you tell me what that is?'
'Gladly,' replied the stranger. He took Berlioz's measure as if intending to make him a suit and muttered something through his teeth that sounded like 'One, two.. Mercury in the Second House ... the moon has set ... six-misfortune ... evening-seven ... ' Then he announced loudly and joyously, 'Your head will be cut off! — Mikhail Bulgakov

There is only one lifemate. She obviously belongs with Jacques."
"We do not know that. If he were not your brother ... " Byron began.
A low snarl stopped him. "I see no reason for you to question my judgment in this matter, Byron. I have had more than one brother, and I have never let fraternity stand in the way of what is just or right."
"It was Gregori who hunted your other brother," Byron pointed out.
Mikhail turned his head slowly, black eyes catching the whip of lightning cracking across the sky. "At my order. — Christine Feehan

What people will do to get away from boredom! — Mikhail Baryshnikov

The whole horror of the situation is that he now has a human heart, not a dog's heart. And about the rottenest heart in all creation! — Mikhail Bulgakov

In none of Dostoevsky's novels is there any evolution of a unified spirit; in fact there is no evolution, no growth in general, — Mikhail Bakhtin

If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring. — Mikhail Tal

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

The movement of time is guaranteed by the birth of generation after generation, a never-ending succession that fills the gods with fear. — Mikhail Bakhtin

What is all this? Get him out of here, devil take me!" And that one, imagine, smiles and says: "Devil take you? That, in fact, can be done!" And - bang! — Mikhail Bulgakov

My father was a Party member and he was a pretty high rank military officer under the colonel, junior colonel, I don't know the term. He was a total Stalinist. A bit with a streak of anti-Semitism and very shrewd man, a very kind of nervous man. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Not only America but all countries should think together about how the enormous might of the sole remaining superpower should be used. We need a leadership that is based on partnership, a leadership that unites nations and makes it possible to solve the problems of the globe together. Otherwise, we will have another Gold Rush for a superpower that wants to gain even greater advantages, that wants to gain an absolutely new position for itself. That would lead to a perverse utopia. — Mikhail Gorbachev