The Patient Poppy

Discipline, discipline, and…

This is a quote from the short story The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, translated from the Russian by Ronald Wilks.

Quote by Nikolai Gogol, “This Important Person’s routine was very imposing and impressive, but nonetheless simple. The whole basis of his system was strict discipline. ‘Discipline, discipline, and … discipline’ he used to say, usually looking very solemnly into the face of the person he was addressing when he had repeated this word for the third time.”

Have you read this story? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

If you’re interested, you can read an excerpt from the book here.

The Overcoat – from a collection of short stories – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Nikolai Gogol was born in the Ukraine in 1809. Vladimir Nabokov wrote of his work that “after reading Gogol one’s eyes may become gogolized, and one is apt to see bits of his world in the most unexpected places.” He died in 1852 after subjecting himself to a severe regime of fasting. “The Overcoat” and “The Nose” are two of Gogol’s finest works. “The Nose” is a masterpiece of comic art, and “The Overcoat” is considered one of the greatest short stories ever written.

Copyright © 1842 by Nikolai Gogol.

Translated from the Russian by: Ronald Wilks

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph.

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