Russians/culture

Famous quotes containing the words russians and/or culture:

“But these Russians are too romantic—too exaltés; they give way to a morbid love of martyrdom; they think they can do no good to mankind unless they are uncomfortable.”
—H. Seton Merriman (1862–1903)

“Cynicism makes things worse than they are in that it makes permanent the current condition, leaving us with no hope of transcending it. Idealism refuses to confront reality as it is but overlays it with sentimentality. What cynicism and idealism share in common is an acceptance of reality as it is but with a bad conscience.”
—Richard Stivers, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Culture of Cynicism: American Morality in Decline, ch. 1, Blackwell (1994)