I feel even more incapable of returning to Russia the same as when I left it. It's just one more of those legends in Russia, confirmed by Passek, Sleptsov and others, that one only has to come to the Caucasus to be showered with decorations. Everyone expects it of us, demands it of us. But I've been here two years, taken part in two expeditions and received nothing. For all that, I've so much pride that I won't leave this place until I'm a major, with an Anna or a Vladimir round my neck. I've reached the point where it really rankles when some Gnilokishkin is decorated and I'm not. What's more, how could I look my elder in the face again, or merchant Kotel'nikov to whom I sell grain, or my aunt in Moscow and all those fine gentlemen in Russia, if I return after two years in the Caucasus with nothing to show for it? No, I don't want to know those gentlemen and I'm sure that they couldn't care less about me. But such is man's nature that though I couldn't give a damn about them they're the reason why I'm ruining the best years of my life, my happiness and whole future. Leo Tolstoy
About This Quote

Many people tend to think that the people who are successful in life are always the ones who get all the fame, fortune and recognition. In this quote, Semyon Grigorievich, a Russian geologist, is saying that he has given up on his dreams of returning to Russia with a title and fame. Instead, he is spending his time in the Caucasus with fellow scientists while his country has forgotten him. The situation that Semyon Grigorievich is in reminds one of a story about a little wolf cub that grew up in a large family of wolves.

The wolf cub grew up and would visit the den of its parents on holiday. The wolf cub grew up and continued visiting its parents' den for holidays. While there, one day the mother wolf brought her cub back to their den from an expedition she had been on.

As they were resting together, she praised him for all his hard work. In return, he thanked her for all her hard work bringing him up and doing all the things that made him how he was today. The mother wolf then asked what he would do next after becoming an adult wolf.

The little wolf cub answered that he wanted to return to Russia and be a hero to his countrymen. He explained that he did not want anything else but to serve his country and be a hero for Russia; but since Russia did not know who he was, nor did it know what he had done, no one can tell him when he should return home or what reward or honor should be bestowed upon him there when he does come back.

Source: The Woodfelling, The Raid, And Other Stories

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More Quotes By Leo Tolstoy
  1. I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.
  2. Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.
  3. Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}
  4. I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.
  5. They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.
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