If you want to change the world, who do you begin with, yourself or others? I believe if we begin with ourselves and do the things that we need to do and become the best person we can be, we have a much better chance of changing the world for the better.

A great number of publications and movies on the history of the 20th century - albeit of uneven quality - are evidence of a growing demand. Quite recently, the state-owned TV channel 'Russia' aired a series based on Varlam Shalamov's works, showing the terrible, cruel truth about Stalin's camps. It was not watered down.

Freedom! To fill people's mailboxes, eyes, ears and brains with commercial rubbish against their will, television programs that are impossible to watch with a sense of coherence. Freedom! To force information on people, taking no account of their right not to accept it or their right of peace of mind. Freedom! To spit in the eyes and souls of passersby with advertisements.

Happiness doesn't depend on the actual number of blessings we manage to scratch from life, only our attitude towards them.

The foundation stones of a great building are destined to groan and be pressed upon; it is not for them to crown the edifice.

And the over-all fact that you are a frail vessel full of errors.

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