Leonid Andreyev Quotes

To succeed in life one needs two things — influence and a lucky star.

I cannot get accustomed to war; my brain refuses to understand and explain a thing that is senseless in its basis. Millions of people gather at one place and, giving their actions order and regularity, kill each other, and it hurts everybody equally, and all are unhappy — what is it if not madness?

Bread without love is like grass without salt — the stomach may be filled, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Death augments distance and dulls the memory. Death reconciles.

It’s a powerful instrument, dynamite — nothing like it for a convincing argument!

See thou, whatsoever be thy name — whether Fate, Life, or Devil! I cast thee down my gauntlet, I challenge thee to battle! Men of faint heart may bow before thy mysterious power, thy face of stone may inspire them with dread, in thy unbroken silence they may discern the birth of calamity and an impending avalanche of woe. But I am daring and strong, and I challenge thee to battle! Let us draw our swords, and join our bucklers, and rain such blows upon each other’s crests as shall cause the very earth to shake again! Ha! Come forth and fight with me!

The loss of reason seems to me honorable, like the death of a sentry at his post.

All perishes, all decays, all is born again.

Do you not see the hand of God, which gives harmony, light, and love to the world? Do not the mountains, in the blue cloud of incense, sing their hymn of glory?

What worse can happen to a man than to have been born? It’s like asking a man who is drowning whether he is not afraid of getting wet.

Thus will we deal with life, my little help-meet. Will we not, eh? What though it blink at us like an owl that is blinded by the sun, we will yet force it to smile.

When a man has the rope about his neck, you don’t ask him about his health!