Excerpts from Mother by Maxim Gorky (Diary June ’91)

“It’s a hard thing to bring a man into the world, but it’s even harder to teach him to be decent.”

“God is a flame, and he lives in the heart. It’s been said: ‘in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.’ So the Word is the Spirit.”
“The Word is Reason.” Then God is in the heart and in the Reason – but not in the church. The church is God’s Tomb.”

“Grief’s a hide and we are inside. We’re used to such clothing. Nothing to be proud of. Not everybody has had blinders put on his eyes. Some people just close their eyes, that’s what! So, if we are stupid, nothing to do but grin and bear it!”

“Sometimes your heart is so full you can hardly bear it. It seems no matter where you go, everyone’s your comrade.
Then suddenly you come to your senses and glance around and everything is cold and dirty; everybody cross and tired…”

“It’s easier to take a beating from your own club than from someone else’s.”

“It only hurts to argue with a fellow when all the wounds in his heart are bleeding. Each of us has walked his thorny path, and each of us has groaned like you in this darkest hour.”

“People who joke the most are usually the ones who suffer the most.”

“People will see a lot of sorrow yet and a lot of blood is yet to be shed; but all of my suffering and all of my blood is little to pay for what I already hold in my breast and my brain. I am as rich as a star, with all its rays. I can bear anything, endure anything,
because I have a great joy which nothing and no one can can ever take away from me. And this joy is my strength.”

“What are you afraid of? Asked the mother. “Go ahead and kiss each other. Hug each other as tight as you can.”
“Shall we?” asked Pavel.
“Come on”, said the khokhol, getting up. They embraced strongly – two bodies and one spirit aflame with friendship. Tears flowed down the mother’s cheeks, but this time they were tears of happiness.
“Women love to cry”, she said shamefacedly as she wiped them away. Cry when they are happy, cry when they are sad.”

“We kill mosquitoes for sucking just a drop of our blood.”

“Sometimes you have to go against yourself if you want to keep going forward. You have to be able to give everything. Your whole heart. It’s easy to give your life for the cause. You have to give more – what’s dearer to you than your own life. And by giving this, you strengthen the truth you’re fighting for, the truth which is the dearest thing in the world to you.”

“Life’s hard. A pack of dogs is not a flock of sheep. And every dog barks his own way.”

“When you grow older – so many cares, so little strength, and no brains at all.”

“You mustn’t put your faith in people. That hurts, I know, but you must be afraid of them, and even hate them. A man as two sides of him, you’d like to love the whole of him, but how can you?”
You can’t look at everybody the same; you have to coldly pick and choose; this is my kind, this is not. Not very comforting, is it? But it’s true.”

“It seems to you you’re the nicest little pickle on earth, and everybody wants to take a bite out of you. But after a while you see that others have a bunk of soul no worse than yours in their breasts and that makes things easier. Then you feel ashamed of having climbed up in the belfry with your paltry little bell, too tiny to be heard in the general chiming. But you discover that your bell is a good addition to the chorus of bells, even if the big ones drown it out like a fly in the oil if you swing it alone.”

“How much of this loveliness there is everywhere – all unknown to us, flying past unseen. People rush about, knowing nothing – no time for it and no desire. How much joy we would have if we knew about the riches of the earth and how many wonderful things live on it. And, everything is for everybody, and each thing is for all, isn’t that so?”

“The pleasure of living entails the necessity of dying.”

“A life which thrills me with its amazing intricacy, its wealth of phenomena, and the growth of ideas which are as dear to me as my own heart. Perhaps we are too sparing of emotions. We live too much with our own thoughts, and that tends to stunt our personalities. We appraise instead of feeling. A little happiness doesn’t harm anyone. But no one is satisfied with a little. And when there’s a lot, it becomes cheap.”