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Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

Vladimir Nabokov quotes

American Novelist, Writer April 22, 1899 – July 2, 1977

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Quotes

Vladimir Nabokov quote: "To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the..."
To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute. Vladimir Nabokov
Human thought, flying on the trapezes of the star-filled universe, with mathematics stretched beneath, was like an acrobat working with a net but suddenly noticing that in reality there is no net. Vladimir Nabokov
The sun is a thief: she lures the seaand robs it. The moon is a thief: he steals his silvery light from the sun. The sea is a thief: it dissolves the moon. Vladimir Nabokov
It is nothing but a kind of a microcosmos of communism - all that psychiatry', rumbled Pnin ... 'Why not leave their private sorrow to people? Is sorrow not, one asks, the only thing in the world people really possess? Vladimir Nabokov
you have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs--the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limbs, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate--the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she... Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov quote: "Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to..."
Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards. Vladimir Nabokov
You couldn't get more original than Laura. Laura. Yes, she was an original, all right. One of a kind. Did they break her mold or what, pal? Or...or did it self-destruct? Still, Laura. The one and the only. Such a plain name for a unique cutie. But perhaps my acuity is not without its problems. I ruin everything: a stupid story to be tapped out on my tomb's stone. I ruined even Laura. And an original ruin is rare. Just ask the archaeologist, "Egypt, again?" Just ask me, "Laura, again?" and... Vladimir Nabokov
I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov quote: "A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is..."
A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual. Vladimir Nabokov
Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know. Vladimir Nabokov
A cluster of stars palely glowed above us, between the silhouettes of long thin leaves; that vibrant sky seemed as naked as she was under her light frock. I saw her face in the sky, strangely distinct, as if it emitted a faint radiance of its own. Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov quote: "It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to..."
It's a pity one can't imagine what one can't compare to anything. Genius is an African who dreams up snow. Vladimir Nabokov
This irritated or puzzled such students of literature and their professors as were accustomed to ‘serious’ courses replete with ‘trends ’ and ‘schools ’ and ‘myths ’ and ‘symbols ’ and ‘social comment ’ and something unspeakably spooky called ‘climate of thought.’ Actually these ‘serious’ courses were quite easy ones with the students required to know not the books but about the books. Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov quote: "what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not..."
what makes a work of fiction safe from larvae and rust is not its social importance but its art, only its art Vladimir Nabokov
Sleep is the most moronic fraternity in the world, with the heaviest dues and the crudest rituals. It is a mental torture I find debasing... I simply cannot get used to the nightly betrayal of reason, humanity, genius. Vladimir Nabokov

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