When we feel that we are not sufficiently respected, we should ask ourselves whether we are living as we should.

Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.

Any fool can bomb a train, but just try sorting out the mess.

I have grown used to the fact that public repentance is the most unacceptable option for the modern politician.

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.

A horrible human toll the Russian Orthodox Church suffered throughout almost the entire 20th century. The Church is just rising from its knees. Our young post-Soviet state is just learning to respect the Church as an independent institution.

The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.