Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
Vladimir Nabokov

Two, Light, Sense

Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.
Vladimir Nabokov

Mind, Before, State

Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.
Vladimir Nabokov

Past, Nothing, Once

There is nothing in the world that I loathe more than group activity, that communal bath where the hairy and slippery mix in a multiplication of mediocrity.
Vladimir Nabokov

Nothing, Group, Mediocrity

My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov

Music, Simple, Stupidity

A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual.
Vladimir Nabokov

Work, Art, Society

Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.
Vladimir Nabokov

Two, Known, Literature

Existence is a series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.
Vladimir Nabokov

Existence, Series, Obscure

I think it is all a matter of love: the more you love a memory, the stronger and stranger it is.
Vladimir Nabokov

Love, Matter, Memory

To play safe, I prefer to accept only one type of power: the power of art over trash, the triumph of magic over the brute.
Vladimir Nabokov

Power, Art, Play

Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.
Vladimir Nabokov

Life, Great, Death

I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.
Vladimir Nabokov

Speak, Child, Write

Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution.
Vladimir Nabokov

Revolution, Revelation, Perilous

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.
Vladimir Nabokov

Feeling, Words, Become

Caress the detail, the divine detail.
Vladimir Nabokov

Divine, Detail, Caress

I confess, I do not believe in time.
Vladimir Nabokov

A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.
Vladimir Nabokov

Writer, Poet, Scientist

Genius is an African who dreams up snow.
Vladimir Nabokov

Dreams, Snow, Genius

Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.
Vladimir Nabokov

Life, Enjoy, Immature

Discussion in class, which means letting twenty young blockheads and two cocky neurotics discuss something that neither their teacher nor they know.
Vladimir Nabokov

Teacher, Two, Young

I cannot conceive how anybody in his right mind should go to a psychoanalyst.
Vladimir Nabokov

Mind, Cannot, Anybody

Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words.
Vladimir Nabokov

Poetry, Words, Through

Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash.
Vladimir Nabokov

Great, Book, Ideas

A masterpiece of fiction is an original world and as such is not likely to fit the world of the reader.
Vladimir Nabokov

Fiction, Original, Fit

All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter. For me style is matter.
Vladimir Nabokov

Matter, Seems, Style

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Biography

Nationality: American

Born: April 22, 1899

Died: July 2, 1977

Links

Find on Amazon: Vladimir Nabokov

Cite this Page: Citation

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