10 звонов Александра Герцена
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen

1812 – 1870. Russian writer, journalist, philosopher, revolutionary. Nikolay Ogarev's friend. Publisher of the Kolokol (The Bell) newspaper. Said to be “awoken” by the Decembrists.

 

Quotes:

1. Where the word hasn’t died, the deed is alive as well.

2. A book is the spiritual will of one generation to another, the advice of a dying elder to a young man beginning his life, an order passed by a watchman going to rest to the watchman stepping into his place.

3. Even as people are afraid of mental serfdom, they are twice as afraid of the lack of authority. An external authority is incomparably more convenient: when a man does something bad, he is reprimanded, punished, and then he is set free as if he has done nothing.

4. One must have the strong character to say and do the same thing.

5. There is just one science: there cannot be two, as there are no two universes...

6. The Russian government, as the opposite of providence, is busy improving the past instead of improving the future.

7. The talent of upbringing, the talent of patient love, is less common than all others.

It cannot be replaced by any passionate motherly love nor by any strong arguments of dialectics.

8. When an idea matures, it fascinates people unbeknownst to them.

9. Respect for truth is the beginning of wisdom.

10....one must have great courage to say loudly things that everyone discreetly knows…