# Quote — Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls

> Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?

- Author: [Nikolai Gogol](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol.md)
- Book: [Dead Souls](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol#Dead_Souls_(1842)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/rus-rus-i-see

## More from this book

> Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/russia-are-you.md)

> Among a number of intelligent suggestions there was finally this one too, strange as it may seem, that Chichikov might be Napoleon in disguise...

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/among-a-number.md)

> However, nothing turned out as Tchitchikoff had intended.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/however-nothing-turned.md)