Ivanov: Once I worked hard and thought a lot but I never got tired; now I do nothing and think of nothing, but I'm tired in body and spirit. My conscience aches day and night, I feel deeply guilty but I don't understand where I am actually at fault. And add to that my wife's illness, my lack of money, the constant bickering, gossip, unnecessary conversations, that stupid Borkin... My home has become loathsome to me and I find living there worse than torture.

I've noticed that people who get married cease to be curious.

It is the writer's business not to accuse and not to prosecute, but to champion the guilty, once they are condemned and suffer punishment.

What's the use of talking? You can see for yourself that this is a barbarous country; the people have no morals; and the boredom!

Faith is a capacity of the spirit. It is like talent: you have to be born with it

God's world is a good place. The one thing not good in it is we. How little justice and humility there is in us. How little we understand true patriotism!

The past,' he thought, 'is linked with the present by an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of another.' And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends of that chain; that when he touched one end the other quivered.