If you can't distinguish people from lap-dogs, you shouldn't undertake philanthropic work.

In all my life I never met anyone so frivolous as you two, so crazy and unbusinesslike. I tell you in plain Russian your property is going to be sold and you don't seem to understand what I say.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

I don't like being successful; the subjects which sit in my head are annoyed and jealous of what has already been written.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.

The bourgeoisie is very fond of so-called practical types and novels with happy endings, since they soothe it with the idea that one can both accumulate capital and preserve innocence, be a beast and at the same time be happy...