Searching for inspiration for your trip to Russia or for captions for your Instagram photos? Here are the best quotes about Russia, Russians and the mystery of this vast land.
#1 Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. – Winston Churchill
#2 The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia. – Otto von Bismarck
#3 We had a very successful trip to Russia. We made it back. – Bob Hope
#4 The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society. – Fareed Zakaria
#5 Mr. Gorbachev has apparently stumbled onto one of the best-kept secrets in recent Soviet history: Communism doesn’t work. – Frank Zappa
#6 In Moscow they do not pay much attention to the living but keep their cemeteries in a splendid state. – George Mikes
#7 Humor is the merit of our nation. Caustic and bitter, simple-hearted and intricate, Russian humor has lived through the most ferocious, most desperate years. And I wish to believe, as long as we are able to joke, that we remain a great nation! – Sergei Dovlatov
#8 A Russian man is remarkable for his inclination to spend the last of his savings on different kinds of trinkets, even when his most urgent needs are not satisfied. – Anton Chekhov
#9 In a Russian tragedy, everybody dies. In a Russian comedy, everybody dies, too. But they die happy. – Barry Farber
#10 Russia! Russia… Everything in you is open, desolate and level; your squat towns barely protrude in the midst of the plains like dots, like counters; there is nothing to tempt or enchant the onlooker’s gaze. But what is this inscrutable, mysterious force that draws me to you? – Nikolai Gogol
#11 In America you can always find a party. In Russia the party always finds you. – Yakov Smirnoff
#12 In Russia we only had two TV channels. Channel One was propaganda. Channel Two consisted of a KGB officer telling you: Turn back at once to Channel One. – Yakov Smirnoff
#13 I don’t much enjoy travelling, but I have always longed to take a slow train to Russia. I’d like to go alone – like writers do – with only a pencil and piece of paper as company. I’d take my sketchbook and note down all the wonderful details of other travellers. – Jane Birkin
#14 Russia – it may lose, but you can not win! – Valentin Pikul
#15 Russia is tough. The history, the land, the people – brutal. – Henry Rollins
#16 Russia probably knows the true cost of revolutions better than most other countries. Sergei Lavrov
#17 The Russian state has the advantage over the other, that it is controlled directly by God, otherwise it is impossible to understand how it exists. – Christopher Munnich
#18 Russian may seem narrow-minded, impudent, or even stupid people, but one can only pray for those who are against them. – Winston Churchill
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