Quote of the day by Maxim Gorky: ‘The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully…’ – Russian writer on how art gives humanity its emotional voice

Certain theories interpret the universe using facts, figures, and scientific discoveries. Other theories attempt to explain the importance of these facts for human beings. For the Russian author Maxim Gorky, the arts belonged clearly in the latter group. Literature, music, and other forms of art were not just entertainment to him; he believed that they had the ability to reveal the true nature of human beings, awaken compassion, and convey human feelings.

Who was Maxim Gorky

Alexei Maximovich Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868. From the outset of his life, Gorky endured poverty and suffering. His father passed away when Gorky was young, after which he lived with his maternal grandparents. Gorky largely received no formal education; however, by the time he turned 10 years old, he was forced into work.


In his youth, Gorky worked at various demanding jobs and spent significant time roaming across Russia. He was a laborer, kitchen boy, gardener and in other manual jobs. All of these experiences played an important role in his work as an author, and provided him with firsthand accounts of people on the margins of society.

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Gorky learned from books and became a published author using the name Maxim Gorky which translates to “Maxim the Bitter”. His stories quickly made Gorky a unique literary figure due to the emphasis placed on the lives of workers and wanderers.

He soon became one of Russia’s most famous writers. Some of his most popular works are “The Lower Depths,” “Mother” and an autobiographical trilogy that includes “My Childhood,” “In the World” and “My Universities.”

“The Lower Depths,” which premiered in 1902, became especially famous for its raw portrait of poor people living in a boarding house.

Gorky’s life was strongly associated with political events that occurred in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. He was an activist who took part in many revolutionary movements, and he had strong relations with the Bolsheviks. However, at the same time, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, Gorky defended the interests of intellectuals and artists.

Quote of the day by Maxim Gorky

“The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.”

The quotation comes from Untimely Thoughts: Essays on Revolution, Culture, and the Bolsheviks, 1917–1918, a collection of Gorky’s writings and observations from the turbulent revolutionary period.

What did Gorky mean by ‘art is the soul’?

Gorky makes a clear difference between knowing and understanding through emotions. According to him, science shows the ability of the world to examine, think and understand. Science can show how something functions, uncover its patterns and add to the store of human knowledge.

Art is a different matter. An author can help the reader feel another person's pain. A painter can convey an emotion without explaining it. Music can evoke emotions and memories that cannot be expressed in words.

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This is why Gorky speaks of art as being the world's "soul". The artist can evoke such characteristics as empathy, sympathy, and humanity.

Such an approach was especially appropriate for his literary work since he mostly concentrated on people living poor and miserable lives and gave his readers access to those lives which were mostly unknown to others.

More quotes by Maxim Gorky

“When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.”

“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”

“You must not be afraid of anything in life. It is all experiment.”