{
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/they-insist-that",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/they-insist-that.json",
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  "id": "151f2891-ff89-4f8d-a6fa-82b1501b4c72",
  "slug": "they-insist-that",
  "text": "They insist that an author should write in the strictest, purest and noblest language: in short, they expect the Russian language to drop from the clouds, already refined, and that it should come naturally to the lips, so that all they have to do is to open their mouth and stick out their tongue. It goes without saying, of course, that the feminine half of the human species is very wise; but it must be confessed that our respected readers are even wiser.",
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  "author": {
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  "book": {
    "title": "Dead Souls",
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      "name": "irony",
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  "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:37",
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      "slug": "russia-are-you",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/russia-are-you",
      "text": "Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika?",
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      "slug": "and-for-a-long",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/and-for-a-long",
      "text": "And for a long time yet, led by some wondrous power, I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.",
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      "slug": "rus-rus-i-see",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nikolai-gogol/dead-souls/rus-rus-i-see",
      "text": "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?",
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