It's a lucky man, a very lucky man, who is committed to what he believes, who has stifled intellectual detachment and can relax in the luxury of his emotions - like a tipsy traveller resting for the night at wayside inn.

Don't be sad, don't be angry, if life deceives you! Submit to your grief - your time for joy will come, believe me.

Write for pleasure and publish for money.

I was not born to amuse the Tsars.

If you but knew the flames that burn in me which I attempt to beat down with my reason.

But even friendship like our heroes' Exist no more; for we've outgrown All sentiments and deem men zeroes-- Except of course ourselves alone. We all take on Napoleon's features, And millions of our fellow creatures Are nothing more to us than tools... Since feelings are for freaks and fools. Eugene, of course, had keen perceptions And on the whole despised mankind, Yet wasn't, like so many, blind; And since each rule permits exceptions, He did respect a noble few, And, cold himself, gave warmth its due.

Fearing no insult, asking for no crown, receive with indifference both flattery and slander, and do not argue with a fool.