The Kreutzer Sonata Quotes

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral.

Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have. Music seems to me to act like yawning or laughter; I have no desire to sleep, but I yawn when I see others yawn; with no reason to laugh, I laugh when I hear others laugh. And music transports me immediately into the condition of soul in which he who wrote the music found himself at that time.

I wanted to run after him, but remembered that it is ridiculous to run after one's wife's lover in one's socks; and I did not wish to be ridiculous but terrible.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” —Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata

Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?

Loving the same man or woman all your life, why, that's like supposing the same candle could last you all your life

I killed the wife when I first tasted sensual joys without love, and then it was that I killed my wife.

Another's wife is a white swan, and ours is bitter wormwood.

In the city the wretched feel less sad. One can live there a hundred years without being noticed, and be dead a long time before anybody will notice it.

Every man experiences what you call love for every pretty woman and least of all for his wife. That is what the proverb says, and it is a true one. "Another's wife is a swan, but one's own is bitter wormwood.

«But you are talking of physical love. Do you not admit a love based upon a conformity of ideals, on a spiritual affinity?» «Why not? But in that case it is not necessary to procreate together (excuse my brutality).»

Este incredibil cât de completă este iluzia care ne face să credem că frumuseţea este în genere bunătate.

In town a man can live for a hundred years without noticing that he has long been dead and has rotten away.

Ah! you wish us to be only objects of sensuality? All right; by the aid of sensuality we will bend you beneath our yoke,' say the woman.

Women, especially those who have passed through the school of marriage, know very well that conversations upon elevated subjects are only conversations, and that man seeks and desires the body and all that ornaments the body.

Yes, man is much worse than the animal when he does not live like a man.

Удивительное дело, какая полная бывает иллюзия того, что красота есть добро.

Women have made of themselves such a weapon to act upon the senses that a young man, and even an old man, cannot remain tranquil in their presence. Watch a popular festival, or our receptions or ball-rooms. Woman well knows her influence there. You will see it in her triumphant smiles.

We exchanged disagreeable remarks. The impression of this first quarrel was terrible. I say quarrel, but the term is inexact. It was the sudden discovery of the abyss that had been dug between us.

Chastity and moral purity were qualities McCandless mulled over long and often. Indeed, one of the books found in the bus with his remains was a collection of stories that included Tol¬stoy’s “The Kreutzer Sonata,” in which the nobleman-turned-ascetic denounces “the demands of the flesh.” Several such passages are starred and highlighted in the dog-eared text, the margins filled with cryptic notes printed in McCandless’s distinc¬tive hand. And in the chapter on “Higher Laws” in Thoreau’s Walden, a copy of which was also discovered in the bus, McCand¬less circled “Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.” We Americans are titillated by sex, obsessed by it, horrified by it. When an apparently healthy person, especially a healthy young man, elects to forgo the enticements of the flesh, it shocks us, and we leer. Suspicions are aroused. McCandless’s apparent sexual innocence, however, is a corol¬lary of a personality type that our culture purports to admire, at least in the case of its more famous adherents. His ambivalence toward sex echoes that of celebrated others who embraced wilderness with single-minded passion—Thoreau (who was a lifelong virgin) and the naturalist John Muir, most prominently— to say nothing of countless lesser-known pilgrims, seekers, mis¬fits, and adventurers. Like not a few of those seduced by the wild, McCandless seems to have been driven by a variety of lust that supplanted sexual desire. His yearning, in a sense, was too pow¬erful to be quenched by human contact. McCandless may have been tempted by the succor offered by women, but it paled beside the prospect of rough congress with nature, with the cosmos it¬self. And thus was he drawn north, to Alaska.

But when, as is most often the case, the husband and wife accept the external obligation to live together all their lives and have, by the second month, come to loathe the sight of each other, want to get divorced and yet go on living together, it usually ends in that terrible hell that drives them to drink, makes them shoot themselves, kill and poison each other

As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,—whether a woman of the people with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own society in her ball-room dress. But now it simply terrifies me. I see in it a danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a desire to call a policeman, to appeal for defence from some quarter, to demand that this dangerous object be removed.

Music makes me forget myself, my real position; it transports me to some other position not my own. Under the influence of music it seems to me that I feel what I do not really feel, that I understand what I do not understand, that I can do what I cannot do. I explain it by the fact that music acts like yawning, like laughter: I am not sleepy, but I yawn when I see someone yawning; there is nothing for me to laugh at, but I laugh when I hear people laughing. Music carries me immediately and directly into the mental condition in which the man was who composed it. My soul merges with his and together with him I pass from one condition into another, but why this happens I don't know.

But if man, as in our society, advances only towards physical love, even though he surrounds it with deceptions and with the shallow formality of marriage, he obtains nothing but licensed vice.

The main thing, and the thing which such people as he do not understand," rejoined the lady, "is that only love consecrates marriage, and that the real marriage is that which is consecrated by love.

I led the life of so many other so-called respectable people,—that is, in debauchery. And like the majority, while leading the life of a debauche, I was convinced that I was a man of irreproachable morality.

Children are a torment, nothing more.

Yes: if only a hundredth of the efforts spent in curing diseases were spent in curing debauchery, disease would long ago have ceased to exist, whereas now all efforts are employed, not in extirpating debauchery, but in favoring it, by assuring the harmlessness of the consequences.

Perhaps you think I'm losing the thread of my thought? Not a bit of it! I'm still telling you the story of how I murdered my wife, They asked me in court how I killed her, what I used to do it with. Imbeciles! They thought I killed her that day, the fifth of October, with a knife. It wasn't that day I killed her, it was much earlier. Exactly in the same way as they're killing their wives now, all of them...

It’s the salvation as well as the punishment of human beings that when they’re living irregular lives, they’re able to wrap themselves in a blanket of fog so that they can’t see the wretchedness of their situation.

They abolish the external form, they suppress the formal sales of slaves, and then they imagine and assure others that slavery is abolished. They are unwilling to see that it still exists, since people, as before, like to profit by the labor of others, and think it good and just. This being given, there will always be found beings stronger or more cunning than others to profit thereby. The same thing happens in the emancipation of woman. At bottom feminine servitude consists entirely in her assimilation with a means of pleasure. They excite woman, they give her all sorts of rights equal to those of men, but they continue to look upon her as an object of sensual desire, and thus they bring her up from infancy and in public opinion.

Never had I heard from my elders that what I thus did was bad. It is true that there are the ten commandments of the Bible; but the commandments are made only to be recited before the priests at examinations, and even then are not as exacting as the commandments in regard to the use of ut in conditional propositions.

music transports me immediately into the condition of soul in which he who wrote the music found himself at that time. I become confounded with his soul, and with him I pass from one condition to another. But why that? I know nothing about it? But he who wrote Beethoven's 'Kreutzer Sonata' knew well why he found himself in a certain condition.

There,' she says, 'here are your shirts and drawers. I am going off with Vanka. His hair is curlier than yours.

In a large city the unhappy feel their sadness less acutely.

on which side is truth,—on the side of the thoughts which seem true and well-founded, or on the side of the lives of others and myself?

I would not take a young man to a lock-hospital to knock the hankering after women out of him, but into my soul to see the devils that were rending it.

Se poate afla cu ușurință cât fier și ce metale se găsesc în soare și în stele,dar să scoți la iveală ticăloșia noastră e greu,îngrozitor de greu...

What is music? What does it do to us? And why does it do to us what it does? People say that music has an uplifting effect on the soul: what rot! It isn’t true. It’s true that it has an effect, it has a terrible effect on me, at any rate, but it has nothing to do with any uplifting of the soul. Its effect on the soul is neither uplifting nor degrading — it merely irritates me.

Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have.

For a long time afterwards, in prison, when moral change took place in me, I thought of that moment, recalled what I could of it, and considered it. I remembered for an instant, before the action I had a terrible consciousness I was killing a defenseless woman, my wife!

This is tantamount to saying, "My hand is weak. I cannot draw a straight line,—that is, a line which will be the shortest line between two given points,—and so, in order to make it more easy for myself, I, intending to draw a straight, will choose for my model a crooked line." The weaker my hand, the greater the need that my model should be perfect.

That first quarrel made a dreadful impression on me. I call it a quarrel, but it was not really a quarrel; it was merely a revelation the great gulf that lay between us. Our love was exhausted as soon as our desire was satisfied, and now we stood facing each other in our true relationship, which was of two completely alien and completely selfish individuals who only wanted to get the greatest amount of satisfaction out of each other.

Non si pone come regola, non si prescrive di essere casti; la castità è di per sé un ideale, o a dirla in breve una delle sue condizioni. E un ideale è davvero ideale soltanto quando la sua effettuazione è possibile soltanto nell'idea, nel pensiero; quando il suo raggiungimento ha davanti a sé l'infinito, cioè quando sono infinite le possibilità di effettuarlo. Perché se un ideale non soltanto potesse essere raggiunto, ma anche potessimo immaginarci di raggiungerlo, cesserebbe di essere ideale. (dal post-scriptum dell'autore)

[...] la schiavitù non è altro che il profitto di pochi del lavoro della massa. Perché la schiavitù possa essere abolita è necessario che gli uomini non sfruttino più le fatiche delle masse e che considerino vergognoso e vile tale sfruttamento. Intanto si fa in modo che venga nascosta la forma esteriore della schiavitù e che venga abolito il mercato degli schiavi; così facendo tendiamo a persuaderci che non esiste più la schiavitù e non vediamo e non vogliamo vedere che invece continua a esistere, dal momento che tutti gli uomini continuano a credere che sia giusto sfruttare le fatiche altrui. E poiché quest'opinione resiste, ci saranno sempre quelli più furbi e più forti che si credono in diritto di farlo. La stessa cosa accade con l'emancipazione della donna. Essa viene resa schiava perché ne possiamo approfittare a nostro piacere, e crediamo che ciò sia giusto. Ed ecco che le considerano libere, concedono loro gli stessi diritti degli uomini, ma continuano a pensarle come oggetto di piacere. Con questi principi vengono educate fin dall'infanzia e così vengono considerate in società. Ed esse saranno sempre schiave umiliate e corrotte, e altrettanto corrotto è l'uomo, il loro padrone.

The absence of the rights of woman does not consist in the fact that she has not the right to vote, or the right to sit on the bench, but in the fact that in her affectional relations she is not the equal of man, she has not the right to abstain, to choose instead of being chosen. You say that that would be abnormal. Very well! But then do not let man enjoy these rights, while his companion is deprived of them, and finds herself obliged to make use of the coquetry by which she governs, so that the result is that man chooses ‘formally,’ whereas really it is woman who chooses. As soon as she is in possession of her means, she abuses them, and acquires a terrible supremacy.

Te miri cum frumuseţea ne dă iluzia deplină a binelui. Când o femeie frumoasă îndrugă prostii, o asculţi şi nu-i observi prostia, ci tot ce-ţi spune ţi se pare inteligent. Vorbeşte şi se poartă oribil şi tu vezi în asta ceva drăgălaş. Dacă însă nici nu spune prostii nici nu face lucruri urâte şi mai e şi frumoasă, te convingi numaidecât că e un miracol de deşteptăciune şi de moralitate. Milioane de oameni, generaţii de robi cad victimă muncii silnice din fabrici numai pentru a satisface capriciile femeilor. Femeile, aidoma unor regine, ţin nouăzeci la sută din omenire în captivitatea lor şi în sclavia muncii grele… Ele se răzbună, acţionând asupra simţurilor noastre, prinzându-ne în mrejele lor. Da, totul purcede de aici. Femeile au făurit din ele însele o atât de puternică armă de acţionare asupra simţurilor, încât bărbatul nu se poate purta calm faţă de femeie. E de ajuns bărbatul să se apropie de femeie ca să cadă pradă vrăjii ei şi să-şi piardă capul. Şi odinioară mă simţeam totdeauna prost, stingherit când vedeam o doamnă gătită de bal; acum, însă mă cuprinde de-a dreptul groaza, văd în ea pur şi simplu o primejdie pentru oameni, o nelegiuire, şi-mi vine să chem Poliţia, să strig după ajutor. Căci numai noi, bărbaţii, nu ştim şi, fiindcă nu vrem să ştim, pe câtă vreme femeile ştiu foarte bine că cea mai sublimă, cea mai poetică dragoste, cum îi spunem noi, nu depinde de însuşirile morale ale femeii, ce de apropierea fizică şi totodată de pieptănătură, de culoarea şi croiala rochiei. Oamenii se căsătoresc fără să vadă în căsătorie altceva decât o împerechere şi rezultatul este fie înşelăciunea, fie silnicia. Înşelăciunea e mai uşor de suportat. Bărbatul şi soţia înşeală numai lumea, lăsând să se creadă că ar fi monogami, când în realitate trăiesc poligamie sau poliandrie. Şi asta e destul de greu, dar mai merge. Când însă – şi lucru acesta se întâmplă cel mai adesea – soţul şi soţia şi-au asumat obligaţia formală de a trăi toată viaţa împreună şi chiar din a doua lună a căsniciei încep a se urî unul pe altul, doresc să se despartă şi totuşi stau laolaltă, atunci ajung la acel infern îngrozitor, care-i duce la beţie, care-i face să se împuşte, să se omoare sau să-şi otrăvească fiecare viaţa lui şi pe a celuilalt

How many times we hear or read of reflections upon the abnormal condition of women, and upon what they ought to be. But these are only vain words. The education of women results from the real and not imaginary view which the world entertains of women’s vocation. According to this view, the condition of women consists in procuring pleasure and it is to that end that her education is directed. From her infancy she is taught only those things that are calculated to increase her charm. Every young girl is accustomed to think only of that. As the serfs were brought up solely to please their masters, so woman is brought up to attract men. It cannot be otherwise. But you will say, perhaps, that that applies only to young girls who are badly brought up, but that there is another education, an education that is serious, in the schools, an education in the dead languages, an education in the institutions of midwifery, an education in medical courses, and in other courses. It is false. Every sort of feminine education has for its sole object the attraction of men.

You are not to be guarded in your actions either by what has been or what will be, but only by what it is your own duty to do.

Вы говорите, что женщины в нашем обществе живут иными интересами, чем женщины в домах терпимости, а я говорю, что нет, и докажу. Если люди различны по целям жизни, по внутреннему содержанию жизни, то это различие непременно отразится и во внешности, и внешность будет различная. Но посмотрите на тех, на несчастных презираемых, и на самых высших светских барынь: те же наряды, те же фасоны, те же духи, то же оголение рук, плеч, грудей и обтягивание выставленного зада, та же страсть к камушкам, к дорогим, блестящим вещам, те же увеселения, танцы и музыка, пенье. Как те заманивают всеми средствами, так и эти. Никакой разницы. Строго определяя, надо только сказать, что проститутки на короткие сроки - обыкновенно презираемы, проститутки на долгие - уважаемы.

People should understand the true significance of the words of St. Matthew as to looking upon a woman with the eye of desire; for the words apply to woman in her sisterly character--not only to another man's wife, but also, and above all, to one's own.

A espécie mais elevada dos animais, a espécie humana, devia, para se manter na luta contra os outros animais, assemelhar-se em tudo a um enxame de abelhas; não se multiplicar até ao infinito. Devia, como as abelhas, criar assexuados, isto é, caminhar para a continência e não para o sensualismo para o qual está organizada a vida moderna.

A zene arra ösztönöz, hogy elfeledkezzem magamról, a valódi állapotomról, valami más állapotba visz át, nem a magaméba. A zene hatása alatt, úgy rémlik, azt érzem, amit voltaképpen nem érzek, megértem, amit nem értek, meg bírom tenni, amit nem bírok. (Kreutzer-szonáta)

Fury too, has its laws.

For the attainment of blessedness, a law has been given to humanity which it should fulfill. The law is that of the union of mankind.

All this mental illness of our occurred simply bc we lived immorally. We suffered from our immoral life, to smother our suffering we committed various abnormal acts. I disliked him, bc I understood that he was a dirty adulterer.

When a human being does not live humanly, it is worse for him or her than for the beast. Love children humanly. Our whole life was continually poisoned by fear on the children`s account - fear of their real or imaginary illness.

Love or do not love, but do not break a home. How can ordinary love sanctify marriage? Pure girl only wants children.

Chciałem biec za nim, ale przypomniałem sobie, że byłoby śmieszne biec w skarpetach za kochankiem swej żony, a nie chciałem być śmieszny, chciałem być straszny.

Pero a despecho de todo, queda en pie el punto esencial: la mujer es un objeto de goce. Y ella lo sabe. Es lo mismo que la esclavitud. Pues la esclavitud no consiste sino en la explotación del trabajo obligatorio de los unos para el goce de los otros. [...] Lo mismo pasa con la emancipación de la mujer. La servidumbre estriba únicamente en el hecho de que se quiere y se estima usar de ella como de un instrumento de placer. He aquí que emancipan a la mujer, le dan toda clase de derechos iguales a los del hombre, pero siguen mirándola como medio de goce, y así se educa desde niña y en la opinión pública. Así sigue siempre humillada y corrompida y el hombre siempre queda su amo corrompido. Se emancipa a las mujeres en las universidades y en las Cámaras, pero se sigue mirándolas como instrumentos de placer. Enseñadlas a mirarse como tales, según hacemos nosotros, y seguirán siendo siempre seres inferiores. [...] Esto no pueden cambiarlo ni los colegios, ni las universidades. La única cosa que podría cambiarlo sería un cambio de la opinión del hombre sobre la mujer y de la mujer sobre sí misma.

Dessuten er det her ikke bare en usannsynlighet, her inntrer utvilsomtkvalme. Et helt liv å elske en kvinne eller mann,det er det samme som å si at et lys kan brenne hele livet.

Åndelig slektskap, fellesskap i idealer! Isåfall, hvorfor skal de så ha felles soveværelse?

Today men profess to respect her. Some men give up their chairs to her and pick up her handkerchiefs, others recognize her right to occupy any post at all- administrative, executive- any at all. That is what they profess, but their attitude towards her remains the same. She is a means of enjoyment. Her body is a means of giving pleasure. And she is aware of this. It is a form of slavery.

It is a commonplace fact that there is no one so low in the world that he cannot find some one viler than himself, and consequently puff with pride and self-contentment.

As for the women, they know very well that the noblest and most poetic love, as we call it, depends, not on moral qualities, but on the physical intimacy, and also on the manner of doing the hair, and the color and shape.

Herhangi bir konuda kendisinden daha kötüsünü bulamayacak, bulunca benden kötüsü de var diyerek gururlanıp, kendinden hoşnut olmayacak tek bir alçak yoktur.

Mutsuz insanların kentte yaşamaları daha iyidir. İnsan kentte yüz yıl yaşar da çoktan öldüğünün ve çürüdüğünün farkında bile olmaz. Bunu kendiliğinden anlayacak zamanı yoktur, hep meşguldür.

And the story itself is more frightful than the outcome.

In China, music’s an affair of state. And that’s how it ought to be. Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them?

Iubirea se epuizase prin satisfacerea senzualității și rămăseserăm noi, unul împotriva celuilalt, în adevărata noastră relație, adică doi egoiști, complet străini unul față de celălalt, care doreau să obțină cât mai multă plăcere unul prin celălalt.

Este uimitor cât de răspândită este iluzia că frumusețea echivalează cu binele.

Înainte mă simțeam stingher,chiar panicat,când vedeam o femeie dichisită,în rochie de bal,dar acum mi-e de-a dreptul groază,văd în ea ceva periculos pentru bărbați,ceva ce contravine legilor și îmi vine să chem poliția,să cer protecție împotriva pericolului,să cer ca obiectul periculos să fie luat de acolo,îndepărtat.

Animalele par să știe că progenitura le perpetuează specia și respectă o anumită lege în acest sens.Numai omul nu știe asta și nici nu vrea.Singura lui grijă este să guste din cât mai multe plăceri.

Prostia vine din învățătură

N-am închis ochii toată noaptea şi, pe la ceasul cinci, văzând că nu mai puteam rămâne pradă acestei tensiuni, am hotărât să plec numaidecât. M-am sculat, am trezit omul de serviciu şi l-am trimis să aducă o trăsură. Apoi am trimis un bilet la zemstvă, arătând că am fost chemat la Moscova pentru o chestiune urgentă şi de aceea rugam ca un membru al zemstvei să-mi țină locul. La ora opt m-am urcat în tarantas şi am pornit la drum. (...) Aveam de făcut treizeci şi cinci de verste cu tarantas-ul şi apoi opt ore cu trenul. Drumul cu tarantas-ul fu minunat. Era o vreme rece de toamnă, cu soare strălucitor. Ştii, tocmai vremea când caielele se întipăresc în pământul moale ca untul. Drumu-i neted, lumina limpede şi aerul înviorător. Da, am călătorit bine cu tarantas-ul. Când s-a făcut ziuă şi am întins-o la drum, mi-am simțit inima mai uşoară. Tot privind ba caii, ba ogoarele, ba drumeții ce-mi ieşeau în cale, uitasem unde mă duc. Uneori mi se părea că merg aşa, pur şi simplu, şi că nimic din ceea ce mă stârnise, nimic din toate acestea nu exista şi mă bucuram nespus, lăsându-mă legănat de această uitare.