Rudin

‘I thought,’ began African Semenitch slowly, ‘that there are three kinds of egoists; the egoists who live themselves and let others live; the egoists who live themselves and don’t let others live; and the egoists who don’t live themselves and don’t let others live. Women, for the most part, belong to the third class.’

‘That’s polite! I am very much astonished at one thing, African Semenitch; your confidence in your convictions; of course you can never be mistaken.’

‘Who says so? I make mistakes; a man, too, may be mistaken. But do you know the difference between a man’s mistakes and a woman’s? Don’t you know? Well, here it is; a man may say, for example, that twice two makes not four, but five, or three and a half; but a woman will say that twice two makes a wax candle.’

Above is the best metaphor I've ever heard about the difference between man and woman.

Рудин Written by Ivan Turgenev in 1855. This is a great book about a superfluous man who talks so nicely just about everything, but all that means nothing. He doesn't do anything. This book also nails on the subjects that I'm interested: man vs. woman, intellectuals vs. upper social class, rich vs. poor, the ones who do without talking vs. the ones who talk without doing anything...