The Quotation Of The Day Mailing List |
Quotation of the Day for December 14, 2010"Why is it that with us, unless you keep a close eye on the simple man, he turns into a drunkard and a scoundrel?" "Lack of education," observed Chichikov. "Well, God knows about that. We were educated; and how do we live? I went to the university and listened to lectures in all fields, yet not only did I not learn the art and order of living, but it seems I learned best the art of spending more money on various new refinements and comforts, and became better acquainted with the objects for which one needs money. Is it because there was no sense in my studies? Not really; it's the same with my other comrades. Maybe two or three of them derived something truly useful for themselves from it, and maybe that was because they were intelligent to begin with, but the rest only tried to learn what's bad for one's health and fritters away one's money.... And so we choose from education that which, after all, is on the mean side; we snatch the surface, but the thing itself we don't take. No, Pavel Ivanovich, it's because of something else that we don't know how to live, but what it is, by God, I don't know." - Nikolai Gogol, from his novel Dead Souls, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Submitted by: Terry Labach Nov. 12, 2010 |
| Shopping through our Amazon links supports Quotation Of The Day. Visit our blog | Find Nikolai Gogol  at Amazon.ca. Visit our Amazon.ca store | Find Nikolai Gogol  at Amazon.com. Visit our Amazon.com store |
