‘If you want to annoy an opponent thoroughly, and even to harm him,’ said a
crafty old knave to me, ‘you reproach him with the very defect or vice you
are conscious of in yourself. Be indignant… and reproach him!
‘To begin with, it will set others thinking you have not that vice.
‘In the second place, your indignation may well be sincere…. You can turn
to account the pricks of your own conscience.
If you, for instance, are a turncoat, reproach your opponent with having no
convictions!
‘If you are yourself slavish at heart, tell him reproachfully that he is
slavish… the slave of civilisation, of Europe, of Socialism!’
‘One might even say, the slave of anti-slavishness,’ I suggested.
‘You might even do that,’ assented the cunning knave.
(Ivan Turgenev)
More Poetry from Ivan Turgenev:
Ivan Turgenev Poems based on Topics: Conscience, Vice & Virtue, Place, Slavery- Two Stanzas (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
- The Country (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
- An Eastern Legend (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
- Hang Him! (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
- The Nymphs (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
- The Old Woman (Ivan Turgenev Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Place Poems, Vice & Virtue Poems, Slavery Poems, Conscience PoemsBased on Keywords: assented, convictions, opponent, reproachfully, civilisation, socialism, turncoat
- Protestant Popery: Or, The Convocation - Canto IV (Nicholas Amhurst Poems)
- The Protestant Session (Nicholas Amhurst Poems)
- How I Consulted The Oracle Of The Goldfishes (James Russell Lowell Poems)
- The Vision Of Piers Plowman - Part 04 (William Langland Poems)
- Cen'lin, Prince Of Mercia (Matilda Betham Poems)