Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

Nothing lulls and inebriates like money; when you have a lot, the world seems a better place than it actually is.

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

I have no faith in our hypocritical, false, hysterical, uneducated and lazy intelligentsia when they suffer and complain: their oppression comes from within. I believe in individual people. I see salvation in discrete individuals, intellectuals and peasants, strewn hither and yon throughout Russia. They have the strength, although there are few of them.

For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.

Even while lying, you'll be believed if you speak with authority.

People should be beautiful in every way - in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts, and in their innermost selves.