Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether they swear by Soloviev or Kant or Marx. Only individuals seek the truth, and they shun those whose sole concern is not the truth.

No single man makes history. History cannot be seen just as one cannot see grass growing.

We're all time's captives, hostages to eternity.

I have been writing in spurts, bit by bit. It is incredibly difficult. Everything is corroded, broken, dismantled; everything is covered with hardened layers of accumulated insensitivity, deafness, entrenched routine. It is disgusting.

And why is it, thought Lara, that my fate is to see everything and take it all so much to heart?

It is not the object described that matters, but the light that falls on it.

In life it is more necessary to lose than to gain. A seed will only germinate if it dies.