For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch.

The government is not God. It does not have the right to take away that which it can't return even if it wants to.

Flies purify the air, and plays - the morals.

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.

Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job is towrite, and only to write.

Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant.

Oh, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.