They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses hope that despite the presence of negativity and cruelty, goodness and light will ultimately prevail.
In this quote, Boris Pasternak reflects on the struggle between darkness and light, symbolizing good and evil. Even though one is close to death, there is an unwavering belief that the negative forces in the world—cruelty and spite—will eventually be overcome by a brighter, more positive spirit. This sentiment emphasizes resilience and the idea that hope and goodness can triumph over despair and malice, even in the darkest times.
Themes
CrueltySpiteDarknessLightHopeSpirit
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about overcoming adversity and promoting kindness.
More from Boris Pasternak
All quotes →He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Boris PasternakRead
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
Boris PasternakRead
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Boris PasternakRead
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Boris PasternakRead
They loved each other, not driven by necessity, by the "blaze of passion" often falsely ascribed to love. They loved each other because everything around them willed it, the trees and the clouds and the sky over their heads and the earth under their feet.
Boris PasternakRead
Similar quotes
I fear we have shot our bolt - but we have been to Pole and done the longest journey on record.
Robert Falcon ScottRead
People are needed to take up the challenge, strong people, who proclaim the truth, throw it in people's faces, and do what they can with their own two hands.
Abbe PierreRead
Strength, both physical and spiritual, is the product of struggle!
Napoleon HillRead
If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
Martin LutherRead
Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.
Charles StuddRead
All of us wrestle with the angels of our inabilities all the time. We live in fear that our incapacities will be exposed. We posture and evaluate and assess and criticize mercilessly.
Joan D. ChittisterRead