Alphabetarion # Be | Kozma Prutkov, 1854

Pablo Picasso, Head of a faun, 1946

“If you want to be happy, be.”

Kozma Prutkov, Fruit of Reflection, Aphorism No. 80,1854

Kozma Prutkov was actually a satirical character created by the poet Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (Leo’s cousin) and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers. The four distinguished satirical poets used this pseudonym as a collective pen-name to publish parody aphorisms, fables, and epigrams, as well as satiric, humorous and nonsense verses in the 1850s and 1860s.