home › Body › The statement of the historian of Klyuchevskoy is the first rule of politeness. Aphorisms and quotes about politeness

The statement of the historian of Klyuchevskoy is the first rule of politeness. Aphorisms and quotes about politeness

Notebook with aphorisms

1.
The pattern of historical phenomena is inversely proportional to their spirituality.

2.
If the shadow of a person goes ahead of him, this does not mean that the person is following his shadow.

3.
If by character is meant the resoluteness of action in one direction, then character is nothing but a lack of reflection, unable to show the will in other directions.

4.
The so-called types of time are faces on which the most common or fashionable grimaces are frozen, caused by the pathological state of people of a certain time.

5.
Man is the greatest animal in the world.

6.
Our state machine is adapted for defense, not attack. It gives us as much stability as it takes mobility. When we passively fight back, we are stronger than ourselves, for our defensive forces are joined by our inability to quickly understand our impotence, i.e. our courage is increased by the fact that, being frightened, we are not going to run away soon. On the contrary, when attacking, we use only 10% of our forces, the rest is spent on setting these 10% in motion. We are like a heavily armed knight of the Middle Ages. We will be defeated not by the one who chivalrously correctly attacks us from the front, but by the one who from under the belly of the horse grabs our legs and rolls over: like a cockroach that has rolled over onto its back, we, without losing the regular amount of our strength, will powerlessly move our legs, looking for points supports. Power is an act, not a potency; unconnected with discipline, it kills itself. We are the lowest organisms in international zoology: we keep moving even after we lose our heads.

7.
You can have a big mind and not be smart, just like you can have a big nose and be devoid of smell.

8.
A good done by an enemy is as difficult to forget as it is hard to remember a good done by a friend. For good we pay good only to the enemy; for evil we avenge both the enemy and the friend.

9.
A man loves a woman most often because she loves him; A woman loves a man most often because he admires her.

10.
Family quarrels are regular repairs to a decaying family love.

11.
Beauty looks at her love as a sacrifice to Moloch; the ugly one considers it an unnecessary gift that she was allowed to bring; a woman sees nothing in her just a sexual service.

12.
Passions become vices when they become habits, or virtues when they oppose habits.

13.
When a fool begins to consider himself witty, the number of witty people does not increase; when an intelligent person recognizes himself as witty, he always becomes one less smart and sometimes one more witty; when a witty one begins to consider himself smart, there is always one wit less and never one smarter more.

14.
The smart one asked the stupid one: “When will you say something smart?” - "Immediately after your first stupidity," answered the stupid one. "Well, in that case we'll both have to wait a long time," continued the smart one. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve already waited for my own,” finished the stupid one.

15.
Only in mathematics two halves make one whole. In life, it’s not at all like that: for example, a crazy husband and a crazy wife are undoubtedly two halves, but in complexity they make two crazy people and never make up one complete smart one.

16.
The love of a woman gives a man momentary pleasures and puts on him eternal obligations, at least lifelong troubles.

17.
There are women with whom no one falls in love, but whom everyone loves. There are women that everyone falls in love with but no one loves. Only that woman is happy, whom everyone loves, but in whom only one is in love.

18.
Women who did not love in their youth throw themselves into charity in their old age. Men who start thinking late tend to dabble in philosophy. Philosophy substitutes understanding for the latter just as poorly as charity for love for the former.

19.
A woman weeps at the loss of what she has long enjoyed; a man cries, not having achieved what he has been striving for a long time. For the first tear, a reward for loss, for the second, a reward for unsuccessful efforts, and for both, a consolation in misfortune.

20.
Happiness is a piece of meat that was seen in the water by a dog swimming across the river with a piece of meat in its mouth. In seeking happiness, we lose contentment; We lose what we have and do not achieve what we want.

21.
Exceptions are usually more correct than the rule itself; but they do not constitute a rule because there are fewer of them than of irregular phenomena.

22.
Which of the people despise people must despise himself, therefore only an animal has the right to despise people.

23.
He treated women dirty, and therefore women did not love him, because women forgive everything, except for one thing - unpleasant treatment of themselves.

24.
The past must be known not because it has passed, but because, when leaving, it is not skillful to remove its consequences.

25.
A man loves a woman as much as he can; a woman loves a man as much as she wants to love. Therefore, a man usually loves one woman more than she is worth it, and a woman wants to love more men than she can love.

26.
A man usually loves women whom he respects; a woman usually respects only the men she loves. Therefore, a man often loves women who are not worth loving, and a woman often respects men who are not worth respecting.

27.
A good woman, when she marries, promises happiness, a bad woman is waiting for him.

28.
Politics should be no more and no less than applied history. Now it is nothing more than a denial of history and no less than its distortion.

29.
The form of government in the state is the same as the temperament in a person. What is temperament? This is a way of disposing of one's thoughts and actions, as far as it depends on the ratio of his spiritual and physical forces established by the whole structure of a person. What is a form of government? This is a way of directing people's aspirations and actions, insofar as it depends on the historically established correlation of its moral and material means. History that has passed for a people is the same as its nature for an individual, for the nature of each of us is nothing but the sum of hereditary characteristics. This means that just as temperament is a set of unconscious, but emanating conditions from the person himself that put pressure on the personal will, so the form of government is determined by the sum of conditions that do not depend on public opinion, but from the people themselves, emanating conditions that limit public freedom. Public opinion among the people is the same as personal consciousness in an individual. Therefore, just as temperament does not depend on consciousness, so the form of government does not depend on public opinion. The first may change from upbringing; the second is changed by public education.

30.
The creators of social order usually become its instruments or victims, the former as soon as they stop creating it, the latter as soon as they begin to remake it.

31.
A decent woman before marriage can only love the groom, and after marriage only her husband. But she does not love the groom completely, because he is not yet a husband, but a husband - because he has already ceased to be a groom, so that a decent woman never loves a single man the way a woman should love a man, i.e. quite.

32.
Republicans in monarchies are usually people who do not have a king in their own head; monarchists in republics are people who notice that others are losing it.

33.
The whole difference between smart and stupid is in one thing: the first will always think and rarely say, the second will always say and never think. With the former, language is always in the sphere of thought; the second thinks outside the sphere of language. The first language is the secretary of thought, the second is its gossip or informer.

34.
A man in love is always stupid, because he only seeks the love of a woman, not wanting to know what kind of love a woman loves him, and this is the main thing, because a woman loves only her love and loves a man only to the extent that a man loves the love she loves.

35.
The man falls to his knees in front of the woman only to help her fall.

36.
“I am your toy,” the woman says, giving herself to the man. “But by becoming my toy, are you still my friend?” the man asks. “Oh, of course,” the woman replies. “In that case, I have the right to give my friend my best toy,” the man continues.

37.
“I am all yours,” the woman says. - “All mine is yours,” the man objects to her, but he never says at the same time: “I am all yours,” because usually then he himself is not himself.

38.
Troubled times differ from calm ones only in that in the latter they speak a lie, hoping that it will pass for the truth, and in the former they speak the truth, hoping that they will take it for a lie: the difference is only in the object of sanity.

39.
Each female age brings its own sacrifice of love: a girl has lips, a girl also has a heart, a young woman also has a body, an elderly woman also has a sound mind, so that a woman’s life is a geometric progression of self-sacrifice on the altar of love; she has nothing left before she dies.

40.
There are two kinds of talkers: some talk too much to say nothing, others also talk too much, but because they don't know what to say. Some say to hide what they think, others to hide that they don't think anything.

41.
Women have developed aesthetic pride, which is often a source of love: they are not indifferent to the one who is given pleasure if they notice it. On this [is based] the proverb: endure - fall in love.

42.
There are two kinds of fools: some do not understand what everyone is obliged to understand; others understand what no one should understand.

43.
They say that men are born beautiful. This is a prejudice: men are made beautiful and women make them so.

44.
A metaphor either explains a thought or replaces it. In the first case, metaphor is poetry; in the second, rhetoric or eloquence: eloquence is a counterfeit of both thought and poetry.

45.
The face should reflect the personality. This reflection is called physiognomy. There are people whose face does not express anything, and there are people with a strong expression, although they "have no face." Therefore, we can say that there are faces without physiognomies and there are physiognomies without faces.

46.
A man, going to a good deed, will always make him good if, seeing him off, his beloved woman kisses him.

47.
A woman who falls in love with a man to whom she cannot belong must tell him: "I am ready for a crime for you, but I love you so much that I will not allow you to do it." A man in such a case should speak differently: “For you, I am ready for anything, because I love you, and I would be ready for a crime if I loved you less.”

48.
Women admire beautiful men, adore smart men, fall in love with good men, fear the brave, but marry only the strong.

49.
The smartest thing in life is still death, for only it corrects all the mistakes and stupidities of life.

50.
The highest degree of the art of speaking is the ability to remain silent.

51.
Whoever has a heart can do whatever he wants with a woman, both bad and good. The only trouble is that the one who has a heart will not want to do everything he can with a woman, namely the bad.

52.
People think smarter than animals; but they would be more human if they lived as stupidly as animals live.

53.
A young man loves a woman, dreaming that she will be his wife. The old man loves his wife, remembering that she was a woman.

54.
A proud person is one who values the opinion of others about himself more than his own. So, being proud means loving yourself more than others and respecting others more than yourself.

55.
…

56.
The surest and perhaps the only way to become happy is to imagine yourself like that.

57.
To make Peter great, they make him unprecedented and unbelievable. Meanwhile, it is necessary to portray him as himself, so that he becomes great by himself.

58.
Strong words cannot be strong evidence.

59.
Being able to write legibly is the first rule of politeness.

60.
Poor people may have moral rules, but they must not have will: the first saves them from crimes, the second from misfortunes.

61.
A man listens with his ears, a woman with her eyes, the first - to understand what is being said to him, the second - to please the one who speaks to her.

62.
There are people whose whole merit is that they do nothing.

63.
Men value most in women their propensity to sell cheaply.

64.
Labor is valued dearly when capital becomes cheaper. Intelligence is highly valued when strength becomes cheaper.

65.
A wit is not a robber, and a robber is not a wit: the former is sharp, but does not cut, the latter only cuts and rarely sharps.

66.
There are people whose friend it means to be their victim, they are possible only because there are people who see in friendship only the obligation to make sacrifices to friends.

68.
The difference between the brave and the coward is that the former, conscious of the danger, does not feel fear, while the latter feels fear, unaware of the danger.

69.
The best educator is hunger: he quickly recognizes where education should begin - is it worth raising a pet.

70.
In our country, the class division of labor also acted in the development of art: poetry was developed by the nobility, the theater by merchants, eloquence by the clergy, painting by serf artists and Palekh icon-mazers.

71.
Looking at things from above, from the highest points of view, we see only the geometric outlines of things and do not notice the things themselves.

72.
Poetry is diffused in society like oxygen in the air, and we do not feel it only because we live it every minute, just as we do not feel oxygen because we breathe it every minute.

73.
The surest way to correct a woman is to show her an ideal and say that this is her portrait. Out of jealousy, she will want to become his original and will certainly succeed in becoming his tolerable copy.

74.
They express their thoughts about the essence of things very clearly, but in this presentation only thoughts are clear, and not the essence of things. Understanding your thoughts about a subject does not mean understanding the subject.

75.
A good person is not one who knows how to do good, but one who does not know how to do evil.

76.
By playing others, actors get out of the habit of being themselves.

77.
Sometimes it is necessary to break a rule in order to save its power.

78.
Selfish people love power, ambitious people love influence, haughty people seek both, thoughtful people despise both.

79.
Loneliness developed in him the habit of thinking about himself, and this thinking brought him out of loneliness. Thinking about himself, he imperceptibly began to talk to himself and thus acquired an interlocutor in himself. He met himself as a curious and agreeable stranger.

80.
They had order, not because they knew how to establish it, but because they were unable to destroy it.

81.
A rake needs more subtle understanding of people to seduce a woman than Bismarck needs to fool Europe.

82.
There is a big difference between a professor and an administrator, although it is expressed in only two letters: the task of the first is to make yourself listen, the task of the second is to make yourself obey.

83.
To be a good teacher, you need to love what you teach and love those you teach.

84.
With the ambition of a businessman, but with the means of self-love alone, an intriguer emerges.

85.
Art is a surrogate for life, because art is loved by those who have failed in life.

86.
Suppliers of knowledge and consumers of art and vice versa - such is the structure of our cultural economy (turnover).

87.
Unmarried wives turn from a forbidden fruit into contraband with a false seal: they are no longer hidden, but they say that they acquired them in accordance with the current moral tariff.

88.
Worst of all is to feel that you are an addition to your own furniture.

89.
The alien Western European mind was called upon by us to teach us to live with our own mind, but we tried to replace our own mind with it.

90.
Religious feeling places rational Providence as the guide of life. Reason is the blind law of necessity expressed in numbers. The triumph of reason will replace religion with statistics, belief with scientific hypothesis.

91.
A detailed study of individual organs weans us from understanding the life of the whole organism.

92.
The true value of life is known only to those who had to die and managed not to die. The true price of happiness is known only to those who dreamed of happiness and experienced it.

93.
Voluptuousness is nothing but power-hungry vanity played out on feminine charms.

94.
Happy is he who, of all the women he loved, has done the most harm to the one who least wanted it.

95.
Sport is becoming a favorite subject of reflection and will soon become the only method of thinking.

96.
A proud woman makes herself a robe of the Virgin from the soiled diapers of her child.

97.
Gratitude is not the right of the one who is thanked, but the duty of the one who thanks; to demand gratitude is stupidity; not to be grateful is meanness.

98.
The desire to please is a feminine form of lust for power, like the desire to surprise, i.e. scare, there is a male form of the same passion. A woman is given into captivity to whom she wants to command; a man conquers the one who wants to be a slave.

99.
Death is the greatest mathematician, because it unmistakably solves all problems.

100.
P. is canonical cattle, which the Apostle Paul allowed all Orthodox Christians to eat.

"So lernt der Mensch erwerben
Nur in der Liebe Zucht die Kunst zu sterben"

101.
When people, desiring a quarrel, do not expect it, it will not follow; when they wait for it, not wanting it, it will happen without fail. 26 Sep[Nov 18]91

102.
Friendship can do without love; love without friendship is not.

103.
Our society is a random gathering of sweet people who live by daily news and momentary aesthetic impressions.

104.
To live means to be loved. He lived or she lived - it means only one thing: he or she was loved a lot.

105.
Music is an acoustic composition that arouses in us an appetite for life, just as well-known pharmaceutical compositions arouse an appetite for food.

106.
Happiness is not to live well, but to understand and feel what it can consist of.

107.
Secular people are a class of social drones, fattened by the working people, first for fun, and then for slaughter.

108.
In history, we learn more facts and understand less the meaning of phenomena.

109.
Not one of them will fall in love with a man whom all women love.

110.
Who does not like to ask, he does not like to commit, i.e. afraid to be grateful.

111.
A man sees in any woman what he wants to make of her, and usually makes of her what she does not want to be.

112.
People live in idolatry of ideals, and when ideals are lacking, they idealize idols.

113.
In Russia there are no average talents, simple craftsmen, but there are lonely geniuses and millions of worthless people. Geniuses can do nothing because they have no apprentices, and nothing can be done with millions because they have no masters. The former are useless because there are too few of them; the latter are helpless because there are too many of them.

114.
Character is power over oneself, talent is power over others. Spineless talents and mediocre characters.

115.
Why is piety required of a clergyman when it is not the duty of a physician to treat others and to be healthy himself?

116.
A healthy and healthy person sculpts the Venus de Milo from his Akulina and sees nothing more in the Venus de Milo than his Akulina.

117.
Happy is he who can love his wife like a mistress, and unhappy is he who allows his mistress to love him like a husband.

118.
For the most part, the virtues of people, especially women, can be judged only by the totality of their vices, because people, especially women, usually consider virtue only the absence of a corresponding vice.

119.
The existing order, while it exists, is not the best of many possible, but the only possible of many best. Not that he is the best imaginable made him possible, but that he was possible makes him the best imaginable.

120.
Some women are smarter than other fools only because they are aware of their stupidity. The difference between those and others is only that some consider themselves smart, while remaining stupid; others admit to being stupid without becoming smart.

121.
Ladies only discover the presence of the mind in themselves that they often leave it.

122.
Friendship usually serves as a transition from mere acquaintance to enmity.

123.
In artists, from constant contact with art, the aesthetic sense is dulled and wiped out, being replaced by an aesthetic eye, as in an expert wine merchant, the appetite for wine is replaced by the taste in wine.

124.
There are two kinds of indecisive people: some are indecisive because they cannot think of any solution, others because they can think of several solutions at once. The former are indecisive because they are stupid, the latter seem stupid because they are indecisive.

125.
There are two kinds of neighborly love. If we love our very feeling of love for another, that is love. If we love another's love for us, that is friendship. Love is destroyed by reciprocity, and friendship is nourished by it.

126.
Our sympathy for religious antiquity is not moral, but only artistic: we only admire its feelings without sharing them, just as voluptuous old men admire young girls without being able to love them.

127.
There would be a heart, but there will be sorrows.

128.
A thinking person should only fear himself, because he should be the sole and merciless judge of himself.

129.
Whoever laughs does not get angry, because to laugh means to forgive.

130.
Whoever has friends who hate each other deserves their common hatred.

131.
The mind perishes from contradictions, but the heart feeds on them. Warm sadness is often hidden under cold cheerfulness, like alpine ice covers a gentle snowdrop. You can hate a person as a scoundrel, or you can die for him as for a neighbor.

132.
A young girl who wants to marry an old man should write him the following letter with an attachment of friendship: “I can neither be your mistress nor your wife; mistress - because I love you too much, wife - because I am not worthy of your love.

133.
What is the difference between a wife and a mistress? We love mistresses by instinct, wives love us by apostle. Therefore, for the harmony of life, it is necessary to have both a wife and a mistress: with undeserved love of unloved wives, we take revenge on insidious mistresses, and with selfless love for unloving mistresses, we set a good example for our deceived wives.

134.
Sensibility is a counterfeit of feeling, just as dialectics is a counterfeit of logic.

.
To want to be something other than yourself is to want to become nothing.

Notebook

June 1892.
1.
Include archaeological and other supporting information in the review of sources.

2.
The progress of thought lies in the fact that it turns the achieved goal into a means for a further goal; the progress of feeling is that it makes a successful means an end, a new end, forgetting about the original end or being burdened by it, as an inevitable consequence. 4th of July. Brykovo.

3.
The subject of history is something in the past that does not pass away like a legacy, a lesson, an unfinished process, like an eternal law. By studying grandfathers, we recognize grandchildren, i.e., by studying ancestors, we recognize ourselves. Without knowledge of history, we must recognize ourselves as accidents, not knowing how and why we came into the world, how and why we live in it, how and what we should strive for, mechanical puppets that are not born, but are made, do not die according to the laws of nature , life, but break according to someone's childish whim.

Publication date: 2011-10-05 02:03:00

Klyuchevsky Vasily Osipovich, historian, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1900), honorary academician in the category of fine literature (1908), was born in 1841 in the village of Voznesenskoye, Penza province, in the family of a priest. In 1860 he graduated from the Penza Theological Seminary, but abandoned his spiritual career and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, where he studied until 1865. In 1866 he published his candidate's essay "Tales of Foreigners about the Moscow State."

Since 1867 he began to teach the history of Russia, first at the Alexander Military School. He taught a course in general history at the Alexander Military School (1867-1881), a course in Russian history at the Moscow Theological Academy (1871-1906), at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses (1872-1888), at Moscow University (since 1879), at the Moscow School of Painting , sculpture and architecture. In 1872 he defended his master's thesis "Old Russian Lives of Saints as a Historical Source". He defended his doctoral dissertation (“The Boyar Duma of Ancient Rus'”) in 1882. The scope of Klyuchevsky’s scientific interests covered all facets of Russian history from ancient times to the era of Peter I.

From the beginning of the 1880s. on his initiative, public lectures on Russian history began at the Polytechnic Museum. Klyuchevsky himself was one of the most popular lecturers of his time. His full course in the history of Russia, read at Moscow University, covered all external and internal factors in the development of society, taking into account the geographical, ethnographic, climatic, economic and political aspects of the historical process. The brilliant literary style of lectures, scientific papers and journalistic articles, published mainly in the journal Russkaya Mysl, provided Klyuchevsky with a place not only in the history of historical science, but also in the history of literature. He maintained friendly relations with many cultural figures, in particular, it was he who helped in the work on the role of Boris Godunov and other roles of F. I. Chaliapin.

Member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (from 1909 an honorary member). Since the 1880s member of the Moscow Archaeological Society, Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities (chairman in 1893-1905). He died in 1911 in Moscow.

Quotes:

Belief in life after death is a heavy tax on people who do not know how to live to death, stop living before they have time to die.
In history, we learn more facts and understand less the meaning of phenomena.
Being happy means not wanting what you can't get.
In ancient Russian marriage, not couples were selected according to ready-made feelings and characters, but characters and feelings were developed according to matched pairs.
A great idea in a bad environment is perverted into a series of absurdities.
Not one of them will fall in love with a man whom all women love.
In science, lessons must be repeated in order to remember them well; in morality, one must remember mistakes well so as not to repeat them.
The highest task of talent is to make people understand the meaning and value of life through their work.
It is much easier to become a father than to remain one.
Ladies only discover the presence of the mind in themselves that they often leave it.
Friendship usually serves as a transition from mere acquaintance to enmity.
If by character is meant the resoluteness of action in one direction, then character is nothing but a lack of reflection, unable to show the will in other directions.
If the shadow of a person goes ahead of him, this does not mean that the person is following his shadow.
A detailed study of individual organs weans us from understanding the life of the whole organism.
Virtue only gets a taste when it ceases to be virtue. Vice is the best ornament of virtue.
An evil fool gets angry at others for his own stupidity.
By playing others, actors get out of the habit of being themselves.
Sometimes it is necessary to break a rule in order to save its power.
Art is a surrogate for life, because art is loved by those who have failed in life.
When people, desiring a quarrel, do not expect it, it will not follow; when they wait for it, not wanting it, it will happen without fail.
Life is not about living, but about feeling that you are living.
Life teaches only those who study it.
To live means to be loved. He lived or she lived - it means only one thing: he or she was loved a lot.
The pattern of historical phenomena is inversely proportional to their spirituality.
A healthy and healthy person sculpts the Venus de Milo from his Akulina and sees nothing more in the Venus de Milo than his Akulina.
Strong words cannot be strong evidence.
Whoever has friends who hate each other deserves their common hatred.
He who loves himself very much is not loved by others, because out of delicacy they do not want to be his rivals.
Whoever laughs does not get angry, because to laugh means to beg.
The love of a woman gives a man momentary pleasures and puts on him eternal obligations, at least lifelong troubles.
People live in idolatry of ideals, and when ideals are lacking, they idealize idols.
People are looking for themselves everywhere, but not in themselves.
There are people who can speak but cannot say anything. These are windmills that constantly flap their wings but never fly.
Women forgive everything, except for one thing - unpleasant treatment of themselves.
A man listens with his ears, a woman with her eyes, the first - to understand what is being said to him, the second - to please the one who speaks to her.
Music is an acoustic composition that arouses in us an appetite for life, just as well-known pharmaceutical compositions arouse an appetite for food.
We are the lowest organisms in international zoology: we keep moving even after we lose our heads.
Thought without morality is thoughtlessness; morality without thought is fanaticism.
One should not complain that there are few smart people, but thank God for the fact that they exist.
A man loves a woman as much as he can; a woman loves a man as much as she wants to love. Therefore, a man usually loves one woman more than she is worth it, and a woman wants to love more men than she can love.
A man loves a woman most often because she loves him; A woman loves a man most often because he admires her.
A man usually loves women whom he respects: a woman usually respects only men whom she loves. Therefore, a man often loves women who are not worth loving, and a woman often respects men who are not worth respecting.
The man falls to his knees in front of the woman only to help her fall.
Our future is heavier than our past and emptier than our present.
Science is often confused with knowledge. This is a gross misunderstanding. Science is not only knowledge, but also consciousness, that is, the ability to use knowledge properly.
Some women are smarter than other fools only because they are aware of their stupidity. The difference between those and others is only that some consider themselves smart, while remaining stupid; others admit to being stupid without becoming smart.
You can have a big mind and not be smart, just like you can have a big nose and be devoid of smell.
Youth are like butterflies: they fly into the light and fall into the fire.
The past must be known not because it has passed, but because, when leaving, it is not skillful to remove its consequences.
The difference between the brave and the coward is that the former, conscious of the danger, does not feel fear, while the latter feels fear, unaware of the danger.
A thinking person should only fear himself, because he should be the sole and merciless judge of himself.
The smartest thing in life is still death, for only it corrects all the mistakes and stupidities of life.
Under old age, the eyes move from the forehead to the back of the head: you begin to look back and see nothing ahead; that is, you live in memories, not hopes.
Why is piety required of a clergyman when it is not the duty of a physician to treat others and to be healthy himself?
The Great Russian often thinks in two, and this seems like double-mindedness. He always walks towards a direct goal, but he walks looking around, and therefore his gait seems evasive and hesitant. After all, you can’t break through the wall with your forehead, and only crows fly straight.
The prologue of the 20th century is a gunpowder factory. Epilogue - the barracks of the Red Cross.
A proud person is one who values the opinion of others about himself more than his own. So, to be proud means to love yourself more than others, and respect others more than yourself.
The surest and perhaps the only way to become happy is to imagine yourself like that.
Family quarrels are regular repairs to deteriorating family love.
The theater is boring when you see not people on the stage, but actors.
Voluptuousness is nothing but power-hungry vanity played out on feminine charms.
The word is the great weapon of life.
Death is the greatest mathematician, because it unmistakably solves all problems.
Some are always sick just because they care so much to be healthy, while others are healthy only because they are not afraid to be sick.
Freedom of conscience usually means freedom from conscience.
Strong passions often hide only a weak will.
Justice is the valor of the chosen natures, truthfulness is the duty of every decent person.
A man sees in any woman what he wants to make of her, and usually makes of her what she does not want to be.
Do not start a business whose end is not in your hands.
Usually they marry hopes, they marry promises. And since it is much easier to fulfill your promise than to justify other people's hopes, you often meet disappointed husbands than deceived wives.
A woman who seduces a man is much less guilty than a man who seduces a woman, because it is more difficult for her to become vicious than it is for him to remain virtuous.
Selfish people love power, ambitious people love influence, haughty people seek both, thoughtful people despise both.
A good done by an enemy is as difficult to forget as it is hard to remember a good done by a friend. For good we pay good only to the enemy; for evil we avenge both the enemy and the friend.
A good person is not one who knows how to do good, but one who does not know how to do evil.
A worthy person is not one who does not have shortcomings, but one who has virtues.
Friendship can do without love; love without friendship is not.
There are two kinds of talkers: some talk too much to say nothing, others also talk too much, but because they don't know what to say. Some say to hide what they think, others to hide that they don't think anything.
There are two kinds of fools: some do not understand what everyone is obliged to understand; others understand what no one should understand.
Labor is valued dearly when capital becomes cheaper. Intelligence is highly valued when strength becomes cheaper.
The mind perishes from contradictions, but the heart feeds on them.
Being able to write legibly is the first rule of politeness.
Character is power over oneself, talent is power over others.
Happiness is not to live well, but to understand and feel what it can consist of.
Only in mathematics two halves make one whole. In life, it’s not at all like that: for example, a crazy husband and a crazy wife are undoubtedly two halves, but in complexity they make two crazy people and will never make up one complete smart one.
Cunning is not the mind, but only the intensified work of the instincts, caused by the absence of the mind.
A good woman, when she marries, promises happiness, a bad woman waits for it.
Christs rarely appear like comets, but Judas are not translated like mosquitoes.
Man is the greatest animal in the world.
Old age is to a man what dust is to a dress - it brings out all the stains of character.
Passions become vices when they become habits, or virtues when they oppose habits.
Happy is he who can love his wife like a mistress, and unhappy is he who allows his mistress to love him like a husband.
To be a good teacher, you need to love what you teach and love those you teach.
In order to have an influence on people, one must think only about them, forgetting oneself, and not remember them when it is necessary to remind oneself.
To warm Russia, they are ready to burn it.
There are women with whom no one falls in love, but whom everyone loves. There are women that everyone falls in love with but no one loves. Only that woman is happy, whom everyone loves, but in whom only one is in love.
Everything can be proud, even the lack of pride.
The whole difference between smart and stupid is in one thing: the first will always think and rarely say, the second will always say and never think. With the former, language is always in the sphere of thought; the second thinks outside the sphere of language. The first language is the secretary of thought, the second is its gossip and scammer.
There are people whose whole merit is that they do nothing.
Imagination is what imagination is for, to fill reality.
The lawyer is a cadaverous worm: he lives on someone else's legal death.
It is necessary to recognize as aimless not only that which reaches the goal, but also that which suffices through the goal.
There would be a heart, but there will be sorrows.
In Russia there are no average talents, simple craftsmen, but there are lonely geniuses and millions of worthless people. Geniuses can do nothing because they have no apprentices, and nothing can be done with millions because they have no masters. The first ones are useless because. they are too few; the latter are helpless because there are too many of them.
Worst of all is to feel that you are an addition to your own furniture.

History does not look at the individual, but at society.
IN. Klyuchevsky.

They say that the face is the mirror of the soul, but the soul manifests itself not only in appearance. A person related to science has a soul in his scientific works, and if such a person is also a brilliant speaker, his soul is revealed in the ability to convey his thought to people.

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky (January 28, 1841 - May 25, 1911) turned 175 years old. He was born in the reign of Nicholas I, and died under Nicholas II. This is a whole era of Russian history with drastic changes and upheavals in economic, political and social life. Klyuchevsky had already lectured on Russian history at the Moscow Theological Academy and at Moscow University, when the Narodnaya Volya killed Emperor Alexander II the Liberator (abolished serfdom, carried out a number of reforms that significantly changed the way of life of Russian society, under him Russia won the Russian-Turkish war) . The “tsar, heavy to lift”, ascended the throne (the words of Klyuchevsky - V.T.) Alexander III. Russia no longer waged wars, having concluded a Russian-French alliance, it became a powerful European power. The economy developed rapidly. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began. But the socio-political life in the country left much to be desired. After the Manifesto on the inviolability of the autocracy, liberal reforms began to curtail.

About the time when the Romanovs sat on the Russian throne, Klyuchevsky said: "As the territory expanded, along with the growth of the external strength of the people, their internal freedom became more and more embarrassed." And he concluded: "The state is plump, and the people are sickly." This "chubby-heeled" created the image of an unhealthy state and did not bode well for the Russian empire. Klyuchevsky, far from Marxist ideas, turned out to be a perceptive person. The frailty of life provoked discontent among the people. The entire internal political life of the country in the second half of the 19th century passed under the banner of revolutionary propaganda. "The reformers of the 60s were very fond of their ideals, but did not know the psychology of their time, and therefore their spirit did not converge with the soul of the time." Great words! At this time, a generation of nihilists was born, sharply related to all changes. After a series of unsuccessful assassination attempts, they killed Alexander II and tried to kill Alexander III. Alexander Ulyanov, brother of Vladimir Lenin, was hanged for the attempt on his life. The nihilists, the future Bolsheviks, fanned the revolution of 1905 in the country, and in 1917 they managed to destroy the great Russian Empire. This is how the country "suffocated".

After graduating from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, V.O. Klyuchevsky with the assistance of S.M. Solovyov (1820-1879) remained at the department of Russian history. And when Solovyov died, he became one of the leading Moscow historians. At the lectures of Professor Klyuchevsky there was nowhere for an apple to fall. Students took their places in advance and diligently wrote everything down, because each of his lectures was a storehouse of native Russian history. And he read masterfully, often seasoning his scientific calculations with a sharp word.

“He always read while sitting, often lowering his eyes to the pulpit, at times a quivering strand of hair hung over his forehead. Quiet and smooth speech was interrupted by barely noticeable pauses, which, by the way, emphasized the depth of the thought expressed. Such a testimony was left by one of his students at the Alexander Military School. And Klyuchevsky spoke quietly with pauses because in childhood he experienced a strong shock. After the tragic death of his father, a village priest, he began to stutter badly. And only hard work on pronunciation allowed him to cope with this disaster. But he could not completely get rid of stuttering.

“It is wise to write only about what they do not understand,” Klyuchevsky used to say. His lectures were understood even by a person far from history. Well-known lawyer A.F. Koni recalled Klyuchevsky's "inimitable clarity and brevity". Fyodor Chaliapin recalled his ability to captivate listeners. “There is an old man walking next to me, cut in a circle, wearing glasses, behind which narrow wise eyes shine, with a small gray beard, ... in an insinuating voice, with a subtle grin on his face, he conveys to me, like an eyewitness of events, the dialogues between Shuisky and Godunov .. When I heard Shuisky from his lips, I thought: “What a pity that Vasily Osipovich does not sing and cannot play Prince Vasily with me!”

Klyuchevsky successfully combined the talent of a teacher and a writer. He once said: "The secret of the art of writing is to be able to be the first reader of your work." And he worked long and meticulously on the word. He owns a series of sketches and portraits of Russian historians and writers: V.N. Tatishcheva, N.M. Karamzina, T.N. Granovsky, S.M. Solovyova, A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, M.Yu. Lermontov, I.S. Aksakov, A.P. Chekhova L.N. Tolstoy and many others. In the article “Eugene Onegin and His Ancestors”, giving a description of the time when the Pushkin hero lived, the historian perceptively noted: “It was a complete moral confusion, expressed in one rule: nothing can be done and nothing needs to be done. The poetic personification of this confusion was Eugene Onegin.

“A teacher is like a preacher: you can write down a sermon word for word, even a lesson; the reader will read what has been written down, but he will not hear the sermon and the lesson, ”Klyuchevsky assessed teaching activities in this way. Today we will not hear his voice and manner of pronunciation, showing the attitude to what was said, but we can read his “Course of Russian History”. Today, it has not lost any of its significance. The professor often sprinkled his speech with witty phrases that were instantly remembered and became winged: “I am stupid because my body is too cleverly organized; How could she not be smart, messing around with such fools all her life; Metal is honed with whetstones, and the mind with donkeys. To congratulations in connection with the new position of vice-rector of Moscow University, he replied: "If the authorities put you in a frying pan with hot coals, do not think that you received a state-owned apartment with heating." Has his aphorism lost its meaning: “What is a dissertation? A work that has two opponents and no reader”? Passing by villages in which there were many single women with children, he briefly said: "The creations of the holy fathers." And these villages surrounded the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Klyuchevsky was a historian of great erudition, his scientific interests concerned historiography and the philosophy of history, disciplines related to historical science. He is also a geographer (he knows very well the climatic features of the nature of Russia). And a folklorist (well versed in the folklore of the Russian people and its neighbors, with whom the Russian people lived side by side for many centuries). And a linguist (with knowledge of the matter speaks of Russian dialects). And an excellent psychologist (when he talks about the factors that influenced the formation of the character of the Russian people). In the 17th lecture of the "Course of Russian History" the final section "Psychology of the Great Russian." There is here such, perhaps, a controversial remark: “He (a Russian person - V.T.) belongs to that type of smart people who become stupid from the recognition of their mind.

* * *

What is the historical path of Russia, where is it heading? These questions worried the professor of Russian history at Moscow University V.O. Klyuchevsky. A Russian intellectual (although he was critical of this word, his article “On the Intelligentsia” is about this), he adhered to liberal views, advocated enlightenment and broad transformations in society. No revolutionary shocks! But as a historian who devoted more than one of his scientific works to the study of the state structure of Russia, he understood that far from everything was fine in the Russian house. In his diary you can read: “The sounds of life resonate in me sadly, sadly. How much inharmonious, cruel is in them!

M.V. Nechkin (1901-1985) in the monograph Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky. The history of life and creativity”, evaluating the scientific activity of Klyuchevsky as a Marxist-Leninist, regarded him as a bourgeois historian and political idealist who dreamed of a just reorganization of society.

Klyuchevsky was a supporter of the state school in Russian historiography. The school is associated with the names of K.D. Kavelina, S.M. Solovyov, B.N. Chicherin. It was they who developed a scientific system of views on the course of Russian history and on the role of the state in the historical process. Belonging to the "Western" current of Russian philosophical thought, they considered the Russian people to be European. In its development, it must not only catch up, but also overtake Europe.

According to Klyuchevsky, the Slavs already in the initial period of their history became a single Russian people and were able to create their own state. However, in Ancient (Kievan) Rus', the Slavs were hardly a single nationality. Rus' was a country of cities, where each city stood guard over its own interests. Chronicles tell of continuous princely strife throughout ancient Russian history. Internal princely disagreements (and the people in each principality stood for their prince!) ultimately led to the weakening and collapse of the statehood of Southern Rus'. During this period, one can only talk about the relative unity of the Slavic tribes who called themselves "Rus". The author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign called them Rusichs. Only thanks to such strong-willed personalities as Prince Vladimir Ι the Baptist and his son Yaroslav the Wise, Rus' became a strong state, with which all the royal courts of Europe reckoned. This tradition was continued by Vladimir Monomakh and his eldest son Mstislav. After the death of Mstislav, Southern Rus' was slowly heading towards its collapse. The invasion of the Mongols stopped the ancient Russian statehood. Extremely variegated in its tribal composition, and therefore unstable, the ancient Russian people disintegrated.

Klyuchevsky believed that the main goal of the state is the common good for its people. However, “private interest by its very nature tends to oppose the common good. Meanwhile, human community is built by the interaction of both eternally struggling principles ... Unlike the state order based on power and obedience, economic life is the area of personal freedom and personal initiative as an expression of free will. The contradictions between personal freedom and the interests of the state create a complex collision when different views, interests, and aspirations collide. The public good depends on their successful resolution. This is how briefly one can characterize Klyuchevsky's views on the origin and role of the state in the life of the Russian people.

These views, here we can agree with M.V. Nechkina, are largely idealistic. The external and internal functions of the Moscow principality, and then the Russian state, did not at all coincide with the interests of the population. Under the conditions of the Golden Horde yoke, the Russian princes revived Russian statehood with the blood of their subjects. About this time, the notorious Karl Max said: “Amazed Europe, at the beginning of the reign of Ivan (Moscow Prince Ivan ΙΙΙ (1440-1505) - V.T.) barely aware of the existence of Muscovy, squeezed between the Tatars and Lithuanians, was stunned by the sudden appearance of a huge empire on its eastern borders. And then the Russian tsars, starting with Ivan ΙV the Terrible, defended the sovereignty of this "huge empire" in the most difficult struggle with an external enemy, which was tirelessly expanding in subsequent centuries.

Lithuania claimed the Russian lands. Poland, Sweden, France. There were continuous wars with the Crimean Khanate and Turkey. The question of the common good of the people involuntarily receded into the shadows. As they say: not to fat, to be alive. Therefore, this question has always become purely political: to be a Russian state or not. On the Kulikovo field, the Russian people showed their Great Russian pride, but they were still far from unity. In the Time of Troubles, when the Rurik dynasty was interrupted, and Poland tried to place Prince Vladislav on the Moscow throne, the Russian people, united, expelled the Poles from Moscow and placed Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov on the throne. Russia began to rule a new royal dynasty. The common historical memory, language and culture united the people in the struggle against the Polish invaders. Only from that time can one speak of a single Great Russian people. But the Little Russian people (Ukrainians), no matter how hard they strained their strength, remained without their own state for many centuries.

Klyuchevsky's activity took place in the second half of the XΙX century, when, after the reforms of Alexander ΙΙ, the Russian economy began to rise. As a result of the financial reform (1897-1899), the gold ruble entered circulation; in terms of gold content, it was only twice as “lighter” than the dollar (it is interesting to compare with our time). Thoughts about the common good at that time no longer looked like a utopia. The ideas of the French Revolution "Liberty, equality, fraternity" wandered in the minds of enlightened people. And now, it seemed, their time in Russia had come. Klyuchevsky (at one time he taught a course on the history of the French Revolution of 1789 at Moscow University) became interested in politics and joined the Constitutional Democratic Party (the Cadets), which declares itself to be non-class and reformist. But he did not gain fame in this field.

* * *

Klyuchevsky considered colonization to be the main factor in Russian history. In it, he identified four periods. This periodization has not lost its significance today, when after the collapse of the USSR in independent Ukraine they began to create their own history and began to deny the common Slavic roots of Ukrainians and Russians. In the second period of Russian history (XΙΙΙ century - early XV century), due to a number of unfavorable reasons, the outflow of the Russian population from the middle reaches of the Dnieper to the northeast of the Central Russian Upland, inhabited mainly by Finnish tribes, began. And here lies the key to understanding the processes that ultimately led to the division of the Russian people into Russians and Ukrainians.

The new Russians brought their customs, laws and Christian faith to a remote, hard-to-reach corner. Here they built their cities along the rivers (Klyuchevsky in the toponym Moscow hears the Finnish “Va” - “water”), gradually mixing with the Finnish population, adopting some of their customs. This is how the Great Russian people was formed. A fraction of Finnish blood flows in the blood of a modern Russian. This fact, described in detail by Klyuchevsky, serves as proof to Ukrainian nationalists that Ukrainians and Russians are completely different peoples. Allegedly, the current Russians stole from the Ukrainians their generic self-name (ethnonym) Rus. It cannot be called otherwise than a deliberate distortion of historical facts. Deliberately planting on ordinary Ukrainians the idea that the Ukrainian and Russian people do not have common historical roots serves to alienate the two fraternal Slavic peoples. Sowing discord between them. Who benefits? - can be repeated after the ancient Romans.

In Eastern Europe there were processes that affected Western Europe much later, when Christopher Columbus discovered America. This allowed the active, adventurous population of Western Europe to colonize the New World and create their own civilization. On the Central Russian Upland, these processes took place long before the discovery of America. Klyuchevsky, evaluating these processes, spoke of the rupture of the ancient Russian nationality. “The main mass of the Russian people, retreating before overwhelming external dangers from the Dnieper south-west to the Oka and the upper Volga, gathered their defeated forces there, strengthened in the forests of central Russia, saved their people and, having armed it with the power of a cohesive state, again came to the Dnieper south -west, in order to save the weakest part of the Russian people who remained there from a foreign yoke and influence.

“Being neighbors does not mean being close,” Klyuchevsky said. Ukrainians and Russians are indeed different in their mentality. For many historical reasons. But they have the same roots, they lie in the history of Kievan Rus. You need to know this, and not frantically scream that we have never been brothers. We will never be them again, history is written once and right away. But you need to remember your roots.

Of course, historical science does not stand still. A century after the death of Klyuchevsky, archaeologists discovered new artifacts, many previously unknown documents were introduced into scientific circulation. They expand our knowledge of Russian history from ancient times, complement what Klyuchevsky said in The Course of Russian History. However, the latest discoveries introduced into the arsenal of historical science in no way detract from the scientific works of the famous Moscow historian. They have not lost their relevance even now.

* * *

Vasily Osipovich, a multi-talented person, wrote poetry and prose. The story "Letter from a Frenchwoman" about Russia. Klyuchevsky remained a historian here too, who foresaw the great and tragic history of Russia, foresaw the coming of her unsuccessful messiahs.

“Firstly, I don’t know why, but I feel in this country the presence of enormous, still untouched forces, about which it is not yet possible to say what direction they will take when they start from their inactivity: whether they will go to create the happiness of the human race, or on the destruction of the meager good that they have ... I think that this will be a country of surprises, historical surprises ... Anything can happen here, except for what is needed, great things can happen when no one expects, maybe and nothing will happen when everyone is waiting for the great. Yes, this country is difficult to study and even more difficult to govern... I really don't know what will happen to this country. In it, perhaps, great stories will appear; but it will hardly have successful prophets ... ".

And more from the same story. “You can and should borrow the easiest way to knit stockings invented by others; but it is impossible and shameful to adopt someone else's way of life, the structure of feelings and the order of relations. Every decent people should have their own all this, just as every decent person should have his own head and his own wife.

The professor of Russian history Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky was buried in Moscow at the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky

Aphorisms and thoughts about history

Notebook with aphorisms

The pattern of historical phenomena is inversely proportional to their spirituality.

If the shadow of a person goes ahead of him, this does not mean that the person is following his shadow.

If by character is meant the resoluteness of action in one direction, then character is nothing but a lack of reflection, unable to show the will in other directions.

The so-called types of time are faces on which the most common or fashionable grimaces are frozen, caused by the pathological state of people of a certain time.

Man is the greatest animal in the world.

Our state machine is adapted for defense, not attack. It gives us as much stability as it takes mobility. When we passively fight back, we are stronger than ourselves, for our defensive forces are joined by our inability to quickly understand our impotence, i.e. our courage is increased by the fact that, being frightened, we are not going to run away soon. On the contrary, when attacking, we use only 10% of our forces, the rest is spent on setting these 10% in motion. We are like a heavily armed knight of the Middle Ages. We will be defeated not by the one who chivalrously correctly attacks us from the front, but by the one who from under the belly of the horse grabs our legs and rolls over: like a cockroach that has rolled over onto its back, we, without losing the regular amount of our strength, will powerlessly move our legs, looking for points supports. Power is an act, not a potency; unconnected with discipline, it kills itself. We are the lowest organisms in international zoology: we keep moving even after we lose our heads.

You can have a big mind and not be smart, just like you can have a big nose and be devoid of smell.

A good done by an enemy is as difficult to forget as it is hard to remember a good done by a friend. For good we pay good only to the enemy; for evil we avenge both the enemy and the friend.

A man loves a woman most often because she loves him; A woman loves a man most often because he admires her.

Family quarrels are regular repairs to a decaying family love.

Beauty looks at her love as a sacrifice to Moloch; the ugly one considers it an unnecessary gift that she was allowed to bring; a woman sees nothing in her just a sexual service.

Passions become vices when they become habits, or virtues when they oppose habits.

When a fool begins to consider himself witty, the number of witty people does not increase; when an intelligent person recognizes himself as witty, he always becomes one less smart and sometimes one more witty; when a witty one begins to consider himself smart, there is always one wit less and never one smarter more.

The smart one asked the stupid one: “When will you say something smart?” - "Immediately after your first stupidity," answered the stupid one. "Well, in that case we'll both have to wait a long time," continued the smart one. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve already waited for my own,” finished the stupid one.

Only in mathematics two halves make one whole. In life, it’s not at all like that: for example, a crazy husband and a crazy wife are undoubtedly two halves, but in complexity they make two crazy people and never make up one complete smart one.

The love of a woman gives a man momentary pleasures and puts on him eternal obligations, at least lifelong troubles.

There are women with whom no one falls in love, but whom everyone loves. There are women that everyone falls in love with but no one loves. Only that woman is happy, whom everyone loves, but in whom only one is in love.

Women who did not love in their youth throw themselves into charity in their old age. Men who start thinking late tend to dabble in philosophy. Philosophy substitutes understanding for the latter just as poorly as charity for love for the former.

A woman weeps at the loss of what she has long enjoyed; a man cries, not having achieved what he has been striving for a long time. For the first tear, a reward for loss, for the second, a reward for unsuccessful efforts, and for both, a consolation in misfortune.

Happiness is a piece of meat that was seen in the water by a dog swimming across the river with a piece of meat in its mouth. In seeking happiness, we lose contentment; We lose what we have and do not achieve what we want.

Exceptions are usually more correct than the rule itself; but they do not constitute a rule because there are fewer of them than of irregular phenomena.

Which of the people despise people must despise himself, therefore only an animal has the right to despise people.

He treated women dirty, and therefore women did not love him, because women forgive everything, except for one thing - unpleasant treatment of themselves.

The past must be known not because it has passed, but because, when leaving, it is not skillful to remove its consequences.

A man loves a woman as much as he can; a woman loves a man as much as she wants to love. Therefore, a man usually loves one woman more than she is worth it, and a woman wants to love more men than she can love.

A man usually loves women whom he respects; a woman usually respects only the men she loves. Therefore, a man often loves women who are not worth loving, and a woman often respects men who are not worth respecting.

A good woman, when she marries, promises happiness, a bad woman is waiting for him.

Politics should be no more and no less than applied history. Now it is nothing more than a denial of history and no less than its distortion.

The form of government in the state is the same as the temperament in a person. What is temperament? This is a way of disposing of one's thoughts and actions, as far as it depends on the ratio of his spiritual and physical forces established by the whole structure of a person. What is a form of government? This is a way of directing people's aspirations and actions, insofar as it depends on the historically established correlation of its moral and material means. History that has passed for a people is the same as its nature for an individual, for the nature of each of us is nothing but the sum of hereditary characteristics. This means that just as temperament is a set of unconscious, but emanating conditions from the person himself that put pressure on the personal will, so the form of government is determined by the sum of conditions that do not depend on public opinion, but from the people themselves, emanating conditions that limit public freedom. Public opinion among the people is the same as personal consciousness in an individual. Therefore, just as temperament does not depend on consciousness, so the form of government does not depend on public opinion. The first may change from upbringing; the second is changed by public education.

The creators of social order usually become its instruments or victims, the former as soon as they stop creating it, the latter as soon as they begin to remake it.

A decent woman before marriage can only love the groom, and after marriage only her husband. But she does not love the groom completely, because he is not yet a husband, but a husband - because he has already ceased to be a groom, so that a decent woman never loves a single man the way a woman should love a man, i.e. quite.

Republicans in monarchies are usually people who do not have a king in their own head; monarchists in republics are people who notice that others are losing it.

The whole difference between smart and stupid is in one thing: the first will always think and rarely say, the second will always say and never think. With the former, language is always in the sphere of thought; the second thinks outside the sphere of language. The first language is the secretary of thought, the second is its gossip or informer.

A man in love is always stupid, because he only seeks the love of a woman, not wanting to know what kind of love a woman loves him, and this is the main thing, because a woman loves only her love and loves a man only to the extent that a man loves the love she loves.

Thoughts, quotes, wise advice, aphorisms of one of the most prominent Russian historians - Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky.

Academician, professor at Moscow University and the Moscow Theological Academy, founder of a scientific school and Privy Councillor, wrote about the events and facts of Russian reality in a fascinating and accessible way. Historical portraits, diaries and aphorisms of the scientist - a brilliant master of the word - reflect his reflections on science, life, human virtues and shortcomings.

“In the life of a scientist and writer, the main biographical facts are books, the most important events are thoughts” - this is a statement by V.O. Klyuchevsky is confirmed by his whole life.

For Klyuchevsky, the glory of a brilliant lecturer was established, who knew how to capture the attention of the audience with the power of analysis, the gift of depiction, and deep reading. He shone with wit, aphorisms, epigrams, which are still in demand today. His work has always caused controversy, in which he tried not to interfere. The themes of his works are exceptionally diverse: the situation of the peasantry, the Zemsky Sobors of Ancient Rus', the reforms of Ivan the Terrible…

He was concerned about the history of the spiritual life of Russian society and its prominent representatives. This topic includes a number of articles and speeches by Klyuchevsky about S.M. Solovyov, Pushkin, Lermontov, N.I. Novikov, Fonvizina, Catherine II, Peter the Great. He published a "Short Guide to Russian History", and in 1904 he began to publish a complete course. In total, 4 volumes were published, brought up to the time of Catherine II.

The most famous scientific work of Klyuchevsky, which received worldwide recognition, is the Course of Russian History in 5 parts. The scientist worked on it for more than three decades.

The best aphorisms of Klyuchevsky

Untalented people are usually the most demanding critics: not being able to do the simplest possible and not knowing what and how to do, they demand from others the completely impossible.

Gratitude is not the right of the one who is thanked, but the duty of the one who thanks; to demand gratitude is stupidity; not to be grateful is meanness.

Charity gives birth to needs more than eliminates needs.

Being neighbors does not mean being close.

Being happy means not wanting what you can't get.

At eighteen a man adores, at twenty he loves, at thirty he wants to possess, at forty he thinks.

In science, lessons must be repeated in order to remember them well; in morality, one must remember mistakes well so as not to repeat them.

In Russia, the center is on the periphery.

What you do not know the sense of, what you do not understand, then scold: this is the general rule of mediocrity.

Do the clergy believe in God? It does not understand this question because it serves God.

From time to time, the poor get together, confiscate the property of the rich, and begin to fight over the division of the booty in order to get rich themselves.

The whole worldly science of a woman consists of three ignorances: at first she does not know how to get a groom, then - how to be with her husband, and finally - how to sell children.

When choosing a wife for yourself, you must remember that you choose a mother for your children, and as a guardian of your children, you must take care that a wife according to her husband's taste is a mother after her children's heart; through the father, the children should participate in the choice of the mother.

A deed not done is better than a deficient one, because the first can be done, but the second cannot be corrected.

A good person is not one who knows how to do good, but one who does not know how to do evil.

Friendship can do without love; love without friendship is not.

There are people who become beasts as soon as they are treated like people.

Women forgive everything, except for one thing - unpleasant treatment of themselves.

Life is not about living, but about feeling that you are living.

Life teaches only those who study it.

Living with your own mind does not mean ignoring someone else's mind, but being able to use it to understand things.

A healthy and healthy person sculpts the Venus de Milo from his Akulina and sees nothing more in the Venus de Milo than his Akulina.

The most interesting thing is to find out not what people are talking about, but what they are silent about.

The historian is strong in hindsight. He knows the real from the rear, not from the face. The historian has an abyss of reminiscences and examples, but no intuition or forebodings.

History teaches nothing, but only punishes for ignorance of the lessons.

When we feel bad, we think: “But somewhere, someone is good.” When we feel good, we rarely think: "Somewhere someone is bad."

Great writers are lanterns that in peacetime light the way for intelligent passers-by, who are smashed by scoundrels and on whom stupid people are hanged in revolution.

Whoever lives by the labor of others will inevitably end up by beginning to live by the mind of others, for one's own mind is worked out only with the help of one's own labor.

He who does not like to ask does not like to commit, that is, he is afraid to be grateful.

Who is unable to work 16 hours a day, he had no right to be born and must be eliminated from life as a usurper of being.

He who loves himself very much is not loved by others, because out of delicacy they do not want to be his rivals.

Whoever laughs does not get angry, because to laugh means to forgive.

Selfish people love power, ambitious people love influence, haughty people seek both, thoughtful people despise both.

Many small successes are no guarantee of a big victory.

Youth are like butterflies: they fly into the light and fall into the fire.

A man loves a woman most often because she loves him; A woman loves a man most often because he admires her.

Thought without morality is thoughtlessness, morality without thought is fanaticism.

One should not complain that there are few smart people, but thank God for the fact that they exist.

Finding the cause of evil is almost the same as finding a cure for it.

Do not start a business whose end is not in your hands.

Not old age in itself is respected, but the life lived. If she was.

It is impossible and shameful to adopt someone else's way of life, the structure of feelings and the order of relations. Every decent people should have their own all this, just as every decent person should have his own head and his own wife.

There is nothing more hostile to culture than civilization.

Frankness is not gullibility at all, but only a bad habit of thinking aloud.

By common sense everyone understands only his own.

Under old age, the eyes move from the forehead to the back of the head: you begin to look back and see nothing ahead, that is, you live in memories, not hopes.

You sow care, you reap initiative.

The habits of the fathers, both good and bad, turn into the vices of the children.

The difference between the brave and the coward is that the former, aware of the danger, does not feel fear, while the latter feels fear, not realizing the danger.