Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Rome, used to say that one should speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with the enemy, and Italian with the fair sex

Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Rome, used to say that one should speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with the enemy, and Italian with the fair sex. But had he been skilled in the Russian tongue, he would surely have added that one may fittingly speak it with all of them, for he would have found in it the magnificence of Spanish, the liveliness of French, the strength of German, the tenderness of Italian, and, besides, the richness and the vigorous brevity in description of Greek and Latin.

Mikhail Lomonosov

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Rome, used to say that one should speak Spanish with God, French with friends, German with the enemy, and Italian with the fair sex

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s