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Top Five Quotes from the Life of Rasputin

Top Five Quotes from the Life of Rasputin

Cynicism vs conviction, hypnotic eyes, confidence, and more lessons

Ben Wilson
November 22, 2023

RASPUTIN???😱😱😱

Rasputin? WHAT? It’s Thanksgiving, not Halloween.

Yes, to be honest, I originally planned this week’s episode as a Halloween episode. But that timing was a casualty of the ongoing war between myself and the concept of keeping to a schedule.

Regardless, it’s timely. You can listen and be thankful that you aren’t being poisoned, bludgeoned, shot, and thrown into a frozen river. (Just listen to the episode, it’ll make sense.)

This week’s episode was about Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the Russian mystic and advisor to the tsar. (The full episode was for premium subscribers only, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, help pay for my kids’ Christmas here. Their eyes are large and puppy-like, and if you don’t pay for premium, you are making them sad.)

I originally imagined the Rasputin episode as a 5-minute mini-episode, but ended up learning more than I thought. It’s a good study in how to punch above your weight in influence without being top 1% in terms of talent.

Here are five of my favorite Rasputin quotes:

Top Five Quotes:

Rasputin

“Better to be the first peasant in Petersburg than the second aristocrat.”

Once he moved from his small Siberian town to St. Petersburg and began to socialize with high society, people expected Rasputin to conform to aristocratic manners. Acting like them would have been the easy and obvious thing to do.

But instead he continued to eat with his hands, chew loudly, stare at people, and keep his beard long. He did all this because it helped him stand out, because it’s “better to be the first peasant in Petersburg than the second aristocrat.”

“Rasputin was a truly out of the ordinary person in terms of his sharp mind and his religious focus. You had to see him. The way he prayed in the cathedral.

I think it was precisely in the exceptional energy of his religiosity that lay the main reason for his influence on believers. Somehow, we have all become unleavened, or, to use the expression of our Savior, the salt in us has lost its potency.

We are no longer the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We have all cooled down and then suddenly a burning torch appears. What sort of spirit he had - what sort of quality - we did not want to know, nor could we have discovered, for we lacked the necessary knowledge.

But the magnificence of this new comet quite naturally attracted attention.”

We live in a cynical age. For that reason, when people encounter sincere belief, especially when it is coupled with burning passion, they are drawn to it.

True conviction is a force multiplier.

“My attention was chiefly directed to his eyes. His gaze was always concentrated and direct, and a strange phosphorescent light played the entire time in his eyes.”

Passion, energy, and interest live in the eyes. Rasputin’s eyes were much commented on.

“God has seen your tears and heard your prayers. Do not be sad. The little boy will not die. Do not let the doctors torment him too much.”

This is the telegram that Rasputin sent Tsarina Alexandra when her hemophiliac son was injured and near death.

The telegram calmed Alexandra, and the boy soon recovered. Panic is infectious. So is confidence.

“That warm-hearted kindliness, that simplicity of bearing. That bluntness of speech, and at the same time, that rather overbearing independence which marks the recluse. There has been talk of his lack of sophistication, his irresponsibility. And it is true where he was concerned with money. But at the same time, he showed in his dealings with men an extraordinary clairvoyance, which enabled him forthwith to fathom their most secret impulses.

A rugged bearing, accustomed to speak his mind, never intimidated, because he always plumbed the depths of men's thoughts. Such was my father.”

These are the thoughts of Rasputin’s daughter, Maria, on what made him special. Rasputin is widely considered a sinister figure, but I found myself rather touched.

He certainly deserved better than the derision which was so often his companion in life. RIP.

Thanks for reading. Next up is the Napoleon mega-episode that I’ve been working on for a while. Thanks for subscribing.