In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will.
Meaning of the quote
The quote is saying that the honor or award Pasternak received was not deserved. He feels he should not accept it because it does not match how his community views this type of honor. He is politely refusing the award, and asks that his decision not be met with anger or negativity.
About Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak was a renowned Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. He wrote the famous novel Doctor Zhivago, which was rejected for publication in the USSR but later became a crucial part of the Russian school curriculum. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but was forced to decline it by the Communist Party.
More quotes from Boris Pasternak
Man is born to live and not to prepare to live.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.
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What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.
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No deep and strong feeling, such as we may come across here and there in the world, is unmixed with compassion. The more we love, the more the object of our love seems to us to be a victim.
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Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
They don’t ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
I don’t like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn’t of much value. Life hasn’t revealed its beauty to them.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
That’s metaphysics, my dear fellow. It’s forbidden me by my doctor, my stomach won’t take it.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Love is not weakness. It is strong. Only the sacrament of marriage can contain it.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
At the moment of childbirth, every woman has the same aura of isolation, as though she were abandoned, alone.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
No bad man can be a good poet.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
In view of the meaning given to this honor in the community to which I belong, I should abstain from the undeserved prize that has been awarded to me. Do not meet my voluntary refusal with ill will.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
You fall into my arms. You are the good gift of destruction’s path, When life sickens more than disease. And boldness is the root of beauty. Which draws us together.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Art has two constant, two unending concerns: It always meditates on death and thus always creates life. All great, genuine art resembles and continues the Revelation of St John.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
As in an explosion, I would erupt with all the wonderful things I saw and understood in this world.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
Work is the order of the day, just as it was at one time, with our first starts and our best efforts. Do you remember? Therein lies its delight. It brings back the forgotten; one’s stores of energy, seemingly exhausted, come back to life.
Russian writer (1890-1960)
I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.
Russian writer (1890-1960)