Quote

...and the red sun of desire and decision (the two things that create a live world) rose higher and higher, while upon a succession of balconies a succession of libertines, sparkling glass in hand, toasted the bliss of past and future nights.

Vladimir Nabokov

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Vladimir Nabokov
Age: 77 †
Born: 1899
Born: January 1
Died: 1977
Died: January 1
Autobiographer
Chess Composer
Chess Player
Journalist
Lepidopterist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
St. Petersburg
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
Vladimir Sirin
Vl. Sirin
Wladimir Nabokoff-Sirin
V. Sirin
Hands
Higher
Succession
Two
Create
Nights
Past
Decision
Bliss
Live
Hand
Glass
Things
Upon
Glasses
Toasted
World
Future
Red
Libertine
Desire
Rose
Balconies
Night
Sun
Sparkling

More quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

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Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
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All religions are based on obsolete terminology.
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The good, the admirable reader identifies himself not with the boy or the girl in the book, but with the mind that conceived and composed that book.
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I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings.
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Measure me while I live - after it will be too late.
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I am not, and never was, and never could have been, a brutal scoundrel.
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Ada girl, adored girl, [...] I'm a radiant void. I'm convalescing after a long and dreadful illness. You cried over my unseemly scar, but now life is going to be nothing but love and laughter, and corn in cans. I cannot brood over broken hearts, mine is too recently mended.
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Poetry involves the mysteries of the irrational perceived through rational words.
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A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle.
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If I correctly understand the sense of this succinct observation, our poet suggests here that human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.
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Only one letter divides the comic from the cosmic.
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Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity.
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Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.
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Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.
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Why should I tolerate a perfect stranger at the bedside of my mind?
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No difference exists between American and European manners. A proletarian from Chicago can be just as Philistine as an English duke.
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My Carmen, I said (I used to call her that sometimes) we shall leave this raw sore town as soon as you get out of bed. ... Because, really, I continued, there is no point in staying here. There is no point in staying anywhere, said Lolita.
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I mean, I have the feeling that something in my mind is poisoning everything else.
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I was also supposed to quiz my various companions on a number of important matters such as nostalgia, fear of unknown animals, food fantasies, nocturnal emissions, hobbies, choice of radio program, changes in out look and so forth.
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Caress the detail, the divine detail.
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