If I wanted to order a ring for myself, the inscription I should choose would be: "Nothing passes away." I believe that nothing passes away without leaving a trace, and that every step we take, however small, has significance for our present and our future existence.

Oh, dreams! In one night, lying with one's eyes shut, one may sometimes live through more than ten years of happiness.

To believe in God is not hard. Inquisitors, Byron and Arakcheev believed in Him. No, believe in man!

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

In my head there is a whole army of people asking to be let out and waiting for the word of command.

Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far asblather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.

You don't understand, you fool' says Yegor, looking dreamily up at the sky. 'You've never understood what kind of person I am, nor will you in a million years... You just think I'm a mad person who has thrown his life away... Once the free spirit has taken hold of a man, there's no way of getting it out of him.