People seldom learn from the mistakes of others-not because they deny the value of the past, but because they are faced with new problems.

Music has a great advantage: without mentioning anything, it can say everything.

Unfortunately, young Russian artists are in a difficult position today. Painting, like all other arts, rests on a continuity of experience. More than anything, young painters and sculptors need to know the works of their immediate elders. Such a continuity does not exist here to a sufficient degree in the visual arts.

Man is apt to be more moved by the art of his own period, not because it is more perfect, but because it is organically related to him.

We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day... Do not count days; do not count miles. Count only the number of Germans you have killed.

Time narrows or expands according to how we approach it. It varies with a man’s breadth, with his heart.

Do not count the days, do not count the miles. Count only the Germans you have killed. Kill the German - this is your old mother's prayer. Kill the German - this is what your children beseech you to do. Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth. Do not waver. Do not let up. Kill.