Peter the Great — "The beard is a useless burden."
The beard is a useless burden.
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More from Peter the Great
"I have a mind that is always looking for new things."
"Take example from the bees; they work for the common good."
"To talk much and arrive at no conclusion is a bad habit and a disease. It is a waste of time and an obstacle to business."
"The future belongs to those who are willing to work for it."
"I am not a doctor, but I know how to cure my country."
About Peter the Great (1672-1725)
Russian tsar (1682-1725) who Westernized Russia, founded St. Petersburg, and built Russia into a European great power. Closely associated with Catherine the Great (later Westernizing Russian empress). For an intellectual contrast, see Old Believers, Russian Orthodox traditionalist movement that rejected Patriarch Nikon's reforms and Peter's modernization — Peter's beard-shaving decrees, Western dress laws, and calendar changes triggered a religious-cultural schism — the founding poles of Russia's eternal 'European modernity vs Slavic tradition' debate that runs through Slavophiles, Solzhenitsyn, and contemporary Putin-era ideology.