Rudin by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
page 72 of 212 (33%)
page 72 of 212 (33%)
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one laugh.'
'He is by no means stupid,' returned Rudin, 'but he is on the wrong path. I don't know whether you will agree with me, Darya Mihailovna, but in negation--in complete and universal negation--there is no salvation to be found? Deny everything and you will easily pass for a man of ability; it's a well-known trick. Simple-hearted people are quite ready to conclude that you are worth more than what you deny. And that's often an error. In the first place, you can pick holes in anything; and secondly, even if you are right in what you say, it's the worse for you; your intellect, directed by simple negation, grows colourless and withers up. While you gratify your vanity, you are deprived of the true consolations of thought; life--the essence of life--evades your petty and jaundiced criticism, and you end by scolding and becoming ridiculous. Only one who loves has the right to censure and find fault.' 'Voila, Monsieur Pigasov enterre,' observed Darya Mihailovna. 'What a genius you have for defining a man! But Pigasov certainly would not have even understood you. He loves nothing but his own individuality.' 'And he finds fault with that so as to have the right to find fault with others,' Rudin put in. Darya Mihailovna laughed. '"He judges the sound," as the saying is, "the sound by the sick." By the way, what do you think of the baron?' 'The baron? He is an excellent man, with a good heart and a knowledge |
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