War and Peace

War and Peace

by

Leo Tolstoy

Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev Character Analysis

Bazdeev is a prominent Mason whom Pierre meets at a crisis point in his life. He is an elderly, squat, wrinkled man with glittering eyes. He has a kindly yet penetrating demeanor that quickly wins Pierres trust. Bazdeev mentors Pierre in Freemasonry over the years, often warning him not to skip over self-purification in his eagerness to improve otherslives.

Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev Quotes in War and Peace

The War and Peace quotes below are all either spoken by Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev or refer to Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Society and Wealth Theme Icon
).
Volume 2, Part 2: Chapters 1–4 Quotes

“For centuries, starting with our forefather Adam and down to our days, we have been working towards that knowledge and are infinitely far from reaching our goal; but we see our incomprehension only as our weakness and His grandeur . . .”

With a swelling heart, with glittering eyes, Pierre gazed into the Mason’s face, listened to him, did not interrupt him, did not ask anything, and believed with his whole soul what this stranger was telling him. Whether he believed those reasonable arguments in the Mason’s speech, or believed, as children do, the intonations, convictions, and heartfelt emotion in the Mason’s speech […] in any case he wanted to believe with his whole soul, and did believe, and experienced a joyful feeling of peace, renewal, and return to life.

Related Characters: Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev (speaker), Pierre Bezukhov
Page Number: 351
Explanation and Analysis:
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Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev Quotes in War and Peace

The War and Peace quotes below are all either spoken by Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev or refer to Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Society and Wealth Theme Icon
).
Volume 2, Part 2: Chapters 1–4 Quotes

“For centuries, starting with our forefather Adam and down to our days, we have been working towards that knowledge and are infinitely far from reaching our goal; but we see our incomprehension only as our weakness and His grandeur . . .”

With a swelling heart, with glittering eyes, Pierre gazed into the Mason’s face, listened to him, did not interrupt him, did not ask anything, and believed with his whole soul what this stranger was telling him. Whether he believed those reasonable arguments in the Mason’s speech, or believed, as children do, the intonations, convictions, and heartfelt emotion in the Mason’s speech […] in any case he wanted to believe with his whole soul, and did believe, and experienced a joyful feeling of peace, renewal, and return to life.

Related Characters: Osip (Iosif) Alexeevich Bazdeev (speaker), Pierre Bezukhov
Page Number: 351
Explanation and Analysis: