Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Fight in the name of honor. If you have to be wounded again, shed your blood like a salutary dew and smile.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

A rich state formed by poor people is absurd! The state cannot build its prosperity on the poverty and poverty of its citizens.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Wealth is power. Poverty is weakness. We nurtured weakness. And she turned to us with her scary side.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Happiness, happiness… There are things much greater than happiness, much deeper and, if you want to know, much more authentic.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I was praised a lot and condemned more than once for my works, and I came to the conclusion that the measure of the progress of creativity in life should be good, not evil.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I look at the blue Dnipro, listen to the lapping of the waves. There is nothing more expensive in the world for me. I don't want to and will not part with my river under any circumstances. And if I was destined to do something else beautiful and great in life, then only on its gentle and clean shores…

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

The two look down. One sees a puddle, the other sees stars. What to whom?

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Childhood is surprising. The youth are outraged. Only summer gives us peaceful balance and indifference.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I still can't watch the funeral. However, they appear in all my scripts and films, because the question of life and death affected my consciousness when I was still a child and left a mark on all my works.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Reality has become much scarier than any, even tasteless, imagination. And it should be shown that way. The human soul is measured to its full extent, and such that the world did not even suspect. Books and films about our truth, about our people must crackle with horror, suffering, anger and the unheard-of power of the human spirit.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Life is so short. Hurry up to do good!

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Cruelty and universal stupidity, dressing in atavistic feathers, glorified by millennia of bookish lies and bloodthirsty stupidity, turn me into something worse, stupider and more terrible than a wild beast. I am not talking about such noble and respectable animals as a dog, horse or cow.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

If I have to choose between beauty and truth, I choose beauty. There is a deeper truth in it than just one bare truth. What is beautiful is true.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

A lizard reaches the highest mountain peaks no worse than an eagle.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I noticed that a characteristic feature of stupid people who sometimes occupy responsible positions is the ability to quickly make radical decisions on any issue.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Of all human passions, ethical passion is the only worthy and true passion.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

If you forget your friend, leave him in trouble, you were born in vain.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Evil comes from human stupidity.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

How hard, painful, and scary it is to be childless in life and in creativity.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

If you hear a joke, look for the hidden truth in it.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I was born and lived for goodness and love. I was killed by the hatred of the elders just at the moment of their smallness.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

I don't really like my paintings. Sometimes I don't like them at all. I pity them, as clumsy and not pretty enough children, but my relatives. And it seems to me that a good, truly finished picture of mine is still somewhere ahead.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

The cemetery is a mirror of human relationships.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

When there are no passions, there is no art…

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

It is better to die in battle than to die as a secondary stepchild of history.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

It is better to die a hero than to live a slave.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Why do all rulers hate everyone who is against war in principle? Because they are all slaves to atavistic inertia. Try to speak loudly against the war – and you will immediately be judged for immorality. So, the war is moral.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

In your love of life… I see the ordinary fear of death.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

There is separation in all my films. The heroes say goodbye, hurrying somewhere far away, forward, to another life – unknown, but charming, better. They say goodbye hastily and carelessly and, pulling away, do not look back. This is my mother. Born for songs, she cried all her life, saying goodbye forever.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko

A person should always remember where he started in life. A person has no right to be fatherless.

— Oleksandr Dovzhenko