The Overcoat Gogol Quotes

Truth to tell, it was a bit difficult for him at first to get used to such limitations, but later it somehow became a habit and went better; he even accustomed himself to going entirely without food in the evenings; but instead he was nourished spiritually, bearing in his thoughts the eternal idea of the future overcoat. From then on it was as if his very existence became somehow fuller, as if he were married, as if some other person were there with him, as if he were not alone but some pleasant life's companion had agreed to walk down the path of life with him––and this companion was none other than that same overcoat with its cotton-wool quilting, with its sturdy lining that knew no wear. ~ Nikolai Gogol

We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Manilov was pleased by these final words, but he still couldn't make sense of the deal itself, and for want of an answer, he began sucking his clay pipe so hard that it started to wheeze like a bassoon. He seemed to be trying to extract from it an opinion about this unprecedented business; but the clay pipe only wheezed and said nothing. ~ Nikolai Gogol

In this world, people always find a way of doing what they want ~ Nikolai Gogol

You can always tell a pig by its grunt. ~ Nikolai Gogol

A word aptly uttered or written cannot be cut away by an axe. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book ... ~ Nikolai Gogol

Dostoevski's The Double is his best work though an obvious and shameless imitation of Gogol's Nose. ~ Vladimir Nabokov

It is dull in this world, gentlemen! ~ Nikolai Gogol

A quiet room with cockroaches peeping out like prunes from every corner ... ~ Nikolai Gogol

With a true friend one experiences something in the nature of spiritual enjoyment? ~ Nikolai Gogol

How dared you, I repeat, in disregard of all decency, call me a goose? ~ Nikolai Gogol

Despair at not reaching ideal perfection are among the reasons given. Again it is said ~ Nikolai Gogol

Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all ~ Nikolai Gogol

Also, though not over-elderly, he was not over-young. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past. ~ Nikolai Gogol

This world is full of the most outrageous nonsense. Sometimes things happen which you would hardly think possible. ~ Nikolai Gogol

In this holy russia of ours everything is infected by a mania for imitation, and everyone apes his superior ~ Nikolai Gogol

Everything resembles the truth, everything can happen to a man. ~ Nikolai Gogol

You see, wisdom does not come with grey hairs. ~ Nikolai Gogol

A Russian peasant scratching the back of his head means many different things. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Leave me alone! Why do you insult me?" and in those heart-rending words he heard others: "I am your brother. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The claws of Truth were painful. The lies tore away like scabs, and John bled there for hours, stifling his cries of pain in the sleeve of his overcoat - the overcoat he'd received from his father. ~ Frank E. Peretti

I think that it is one of the most refined joys of this world to interchange thoughts, feelings, and impressions." (H'm! ~ Nikolai Gogol

Would he need to consider my feelings if at any point he should feel minded to blame ~ Nikolai Gogol

Even a stone has its uses, and man who is the most intelligent of all creatures must be of some use, hasn't he? ~ Nikolai Gogol

Countless as the sands of the sea are human passions. ~ Nikolai Gogol

I really don't know," the old lady brought out hesitatingly, "you see I've never sold the dead before. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The nose looked at the Major and frowned a little. ~ Nikolai Gogol

But wise is the man who disdains no character, but with searching glance explores him to the root and cause of all. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Consequently he himself perceived that a knowledge of mankind would have availed him more than all the legal refinements and philosophical maxims in the world could do. ~ Nikolai Gogol

I would have played Tom Finney in his overcoat - there would have been four men marking him when we were kickin' in. ~ Bill Shankly

Popularity is exhausting. The life of the party almost always winds up in a corner with an overcoat over him. ~ Wilson Mizner

But my very latest discovery made me feel better. I had found that every rooster has his own Spain and he has it under his feathers. ~ Nikolai Gogol

In his mind, nothing could be more delightful than to live in solitude, and enjoy the spectacle of nature, and sometimes read some book or other. ~ Nikolai Gogol

They christened the child, whereat he wept and made a grimace, as though he foresaw that he was to be a titular councillor. In ~ Nikolai Gogol

I have been here before as a spirit - this is just my physical body, it is just an overcoat. And at death, you will take the overcoat off. ~ Glenn Hoddle

Don't blame the mirror if your face is faulty. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Of course, Alexander the Great was a hero, but why smash the chairs? ~ Nikolai Gogol

Every man who has lived in the world and mixed with his fellow men will have remarked something which has remained hidden from the eyes of others; ~ Nikolai Gogol

- How dare you, I repeat, In disregard of all decency, call me a goose?
- I spit on your head, Ivan Ivanovich! What are you screaming so for? ~ Nikolai Gogol

I shall think soon that what people say is true: every woman is possessed by her own peculiar devil of curiosity ~ Nikolai Gogol

[F]or contemporary judgment does not recognize that much depth of soul is needed to light up the picture drawn from contemptible life and elevate it into a pearl of creation ... ~ Nikolai Gogol

I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The "laughter through tears of sorrow" that Pushkin noted elsewhere in his work is precisely laughter. The images it produces are too deeply ambiguous to bear any social message. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Every one to his taste, one man loves the priest and another the priest's wife, as the proverb says. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Goodness, how sad is our Russia! ~ Nikolai Gogol

I shall laugh my bitter laugh. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The human feelings, which had never been very deep in him, grew shallower every hour, and every day something more dropped away from the decrepit wreck. ~ Nikolai Gogol

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

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

Put off your imagination, as you put off your overcoat, when you enter the laboratory. Put it on again, as you put on your overcoat, when you leave. ~ Claude Bernard

Gambling is the great leveller. All men are equal- at cards. ~ Nikolai Gogol

It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The Lord grant we may all be tillers of the soil. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Man is such a wondrous being that it is never possible to count up all his merits at once. The more you study him, the more new particulars appear, and their description would be endless. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Business was successfully concluded. But - strange is man: he was deeply mortified at being in disfavour with the very people whom he did not respect, and whose vanity and love of dress he derided. ~ Nikolai Gogol

...the majority were of the species who, all the world over, look on the world and at everything that goes on in it and merely scratch their noses. ~ Nikolai Gogol

This gentleman evidently belonged to the category of those people who wish the Government to interfere in everything, even in their daily quarrels with their wives. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Wise is the man who does not disdain any character and instead, examining him with a searching look, plumbs him to the very main-springs of his being. ~ Nikolai Gogol

There are people who exist in this world not like entities but like the speckles or spots on something. ~ Nikolai Gogol

and what in earlier years would have brought animation to my face, arousing laughter and incessant chatter, now slips past me and my immobile lips preserve an impassive silence. Oh my youth! Oh my freshness! ~ Nikolai Gogol

(..) and they would imprint upon each other's lips such a long and languishing kiss, that a little straw cigar might have been smoked during the time it lasted. ~ Nikolai Gogol

It's the most righteous, which of course is not the same thing as the most profitable. ~ Nikolai Gogol

The more destruction there is everywhere, the more it shows the activity of town authorities. ~ Nikolai Gogol

I tell everyone very plainly that I take bribes, but what kind of bribes? Why, greyhound puppies. That's a totally different matter. ~ Nikolai Gogol

In the department of--but it is better not to mention the department. There is nothing more irritable than departments, regiments, courts of justice, and, in a word, every branch of public service. ~ Nikolai Gogol

You can't imagine how stupid the whole world has grown nowadays. The things these scribblers write! ~ Nikolai Gogol

I am who I am and that's who I am ~ Nikolai Gogol

A time of famine and poverty will come and the people as a whole as well as every individual in it will suffer. ~ Nikolai Gogol

There is no good arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat. ~ James Russell Lowell

But youth has a future. The closer he came to graduation, the more his heart beat. He said to himself: This is still not life, this is only the preparation for life. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Woman is in love with the devil. ~ 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

In the old man's face there was nothing very special - save that the chin was so greatly projected that whenever he spoke he was forced to wipe it with a handkerchief to avoid dribbling. ~ Nikolai Gogol

They were terrified out of their wits, the devil knows why: they take you for a brigand and a spy. And the prosecutor has died of fright; the funeral is to-morrow. Won't you be there? ~ Nikolai Gogol

A new Member requires the experience of his first session in the House to teach him how to hang up his overcoat and take his seat in a manner befitting a gentlemen. ~ John A. Macdonald

It's hard to say something about Pushkin to a person who doesn't know anything about him. Pushkin is a great poet. Napoleon is not as great as Pushkin. Bismarck compared to Pushkin is a nobody. And the Alexanders, First, Second and Third, are just little kids compared to Pushkin. In fact, compared to Pushkin, all people are little kids, except Gogol. Compared to him, Pushkin is a little kid.
And so, instead of writing about Pushkin, I would rather write about Gogol.
Although, Gogol is so great that not a thing can be written about him, so I'll write about Pushkin after all.
Yet, after Gogol, it's a shame to have to write about Pushkin. But you can't write anything about Gogol. So I'd rather not write anything about anyone. ~ Daniil Kharms

I am very fond of the theatre. If I have only a kopeck in my pocket, I always go there. Most of my fellow-officials are uneducated boors, and never enter a theatre unless one throws free tickets at their head. ~ Nikolai Gogol

And sank into the profound slumber which comes only to such
fortunate folk as are troubled neither with mosquitoes nor fleas nor excessive activity of brain. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Here, precisely here, man imitates God: God granted Himself the work of creation, as the highest delight, and He demands that man, too, be a creator of prosperity and the harmonious course of things. And this they call dull! ~ Nikolai Gogol

What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Moreover, he had a peculiar knack, as he walked along the street, of arriving beneath a window just as all sorts of rubbish were being flung out of it: hence he always bore about on his hat scraps of melon rinds and other such articles. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Countless as the sands of sea are human passions, and not all of them are alike, and all of them, base and noble alike, are at first obedient to man and only later on become his terrible masters. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Whatever you may say, the body depends on the soul. ~ Nikolai Gogol

There are occasions when a woman, no matter how weak and impotent in character she may be in comparison with a man, will yet suddenly become not only harder than any man, but even harder than anything and everything in the world. ~ Nikolai Gogol

«Our country is the one our soul longs for, the one which is dearest of all to us. My country is - you! That is my native land, and I bear that country in my heart.» ~ Nikolai Gogol

It must be noted that this Person of Consequence had only lately become a person of consequence, and until recently had been a person of no consequence. Though, indeed, his position even now was not reckoned of consequence in comparison with others of still greater consequence. ~ Nikolai Gogol

I like reading ... French, Russian classics - Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert. I also like Hemingway, Virginia Woolf. ~ Andrea Bocelli

We ought to thank God for that. Yes, the man who tills the land is more worthy of respect than any. ~ Nikolai Gogol

As you pass from the tender years of youth into harsh and embittered manhood, make sure you take with you on your journey all the human emotions! Don't leave them on the road, for you will not pick them up afterwards! ~ Nikolai Gogol

being disappeared who was protected by none, dear to none, interesting to none, and who never even attracted to himself the attention of those students of human nature who omit no opportunity of thrusting a pin through a common fly, and examining it under the microscope. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Could it be, God forbid, that nationality is only a superficial, insignificant layer of the onion that is your being? What would you think of the man who would say of himself 'I am an overcoat' just because he happened to be wearing one? ~ Jean-Christophe Valtat

So here we are once more in the wilds, and once more we've come upon some out of the way corner. But what a wilderness, and what an out of the way corner! ~ Nikolai Gogol

But until now I did not understand; everything was in a sort of mist. And I believe it all arose from believing that the brain is in the head. It's not so at all; it comes with the wind from the direction of the Caspian Sea. ~ Nikolai Gogol

There exists a kind of laughter which is worthy to be ranked with the higher lyric emotions and is infinitely different from the twitching of a mean merrymaker. ~ Nikolai Gogol

But the future is unknown, and stands before a man like autumnal fogs rising from the swamps; birds fly foolishly up and down in it with flapping wings, never recognizing each other, the dove seeing not the vulture, nor the vulture the dove, and no one knowing how far he may be flying from destruction. ~ Nikolai Gogol

He disregarded everything, he gave everything to art. He tirelessly visited galleries, spent whole hours standing before the works of great masters, grasped and pursued a wondrous brush. He never finished anything without testing himself several times by these great teachers and reading wordless but eloquent advice for himself in their paintings. ~ Nikolai Gogol

Russia! Russia ... Everything in you is open, desolate and level; your squat towns barely protrude in the midst of the plains like dots, like counters; there is nothing to tempt or enchant the onlooker's gaze. But what is this inscrutable, mysterious force that draws me to you? ~ Nikolai Gogol

I remember my father checking on a mountain kid who hadn't been coming to school. My father had this beautiful Harris tweed overcoat. He came back with a knife cut all down one side. The parents had told him it was none of his business why their son wasn't going to school. ~ Charles Frazier