Persons [ ] Lies are the religion of slaves and masters | Maxim Gorky, 1868-1936
Young Maxim Gorky
“When everything is easy one quickly gets stupid.”
“The poor people are stupid from poverty, and the rich from greed.”
“They destroy lives with work. What for? They rob men of their lives. What for, I ask?
“He’s direct, clear, firm, like truth itself.”
“Lies are the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is the god of the free man.”
“I do not care to see men better off – but better!”
“Family life always diminishes the energy of a revolutionist. Children must be maintained
in security, and there’s the need to work a great deal for one’s break.”
“Yes, our children are our judges. They visit just punishment upon us for abandoning them on such a road.”
Valentin Serov, Portrait of Maxim Gorky, 1905
“You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better.”
“Keep reading books, but remember that a book’s only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself.”
“Writers build castles in the air, the reader lives inside, and the publisher inns the rent.”
“Jazz may be a thrilling communion with the primitive soul; or it may be an ear-splitting bore.”
“In music one can hear everything.”
“Anger is like ice, and also quick to melt”
“This fear is what is the ruin of us all. And some dominate us;
they take advantage of our fear and frighten us still more.”
“Remembrance of the past kills all present energy and deadens all hope for the future”
“We know nothing, and in terror we fear everything. Our life is night, a dark night;”
“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands,
but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”
Maxim Gorky, 1868-1936
Maxim Gorky and M. F. Andreev pose to the artist I. E. Repin. Kuokkala, summer 1905
