Konstantin Leontiev Quotes
Konstantin Nikolayevich Leontiev was a Russian philosopher of culture, novelist, and former diplomat in the Ottoman Empire and one of the most uncompromising conservative voices of late imperial Russia. His Byzantinism and Slavdom and The East, Russia, and Slavdom defended the Byzantine Orthodox cultural inheritance of Russia against the modern liberal egalitarianism he saw as a flattening force in human life. The quotes below are attributed to Konstantin Leontiev, organized by topic.
Konstantin Leontiev on Politics
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Attributed to Konstantin Leontiev:
“Diversity of complexity is life; uniformity of simplification is death.”
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Attributed to Konstantin Leontiev:
“Modern liberalism flattens what culture has long made fruitful.”
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Attributed to Konstantin Leontiev:
“Russia must remain Byzantine if she is to remain Russia.”
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Attributed to Konstantin Leontiev:
“Suffering is the matrix in which great cultures are formed.”
Konstantin Leontiev on Truth
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Attributed to Konstantin Leontiev:
“Beauty is no luxury; it is the form in which life resists decay.”