It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Eternal Love at Sight
E
Writers as Historians
W
Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost any subject he may.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Genius’s Burden
G
A genius needs to keep so much in store, and thus cannot offer you the whole of himself as I do.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Life and Death Sunrise
L
Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Existence: A Brief Light
E
Our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Crying: Beauty’s Refuge
C
Crying is the refuge of plain women but the ruin of pretty ones.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Against Happy Endings
A
Some people—and I am one of them—hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Curiosity Equals Insubordination
C
Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Perilous Revelations
P
Revelation can be more perilous than Revolution.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin
Rain’s Innocent Fall
R
Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.
Vladimir Nabokov – Pnin