Nikolai Gogol

Always think of what is useful and not what is beautiful. Beauty will come of its own accord.

— Nikolai Gogol

Like all of us sinners, General Betrishchev was endowed with many virtues and many defects. Both the one and the other were scattered through him in a sort of picturesque disorder. Self-sacrifice, magnanimity in decisive moments, courage, intelligence--and with all that, a generous mixture of self-love, ambition, vanity, petty personal ticklishness, and a good many of those things which a man simply cannot do without.

— Nikolai Gogol

Also, though not over-elderly, he was not over-young.

— Nikolai Gogol

The experience of ages has shown that a man who works on the land is purer, nobler, higher, and more moral... Agriculture should be at the basis of everything. That's my idea.

— Nikolai Gogol

Two turtle doves will show thee

— Nikolai Gogol

There are certain words which are nearer and dearer to a man than any others.

— Nikolai Gogol

Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions.

— Nikolai Gogol