Why can't you understand? The stars fall down now and then. The gaps have to be filled.

Vladimir Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible - a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

... once you get up steam, you are carried helplessly along.

Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.

A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy and nothing can stop him.

The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation's spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand.