You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.

What right can give anyone authority to inflict torture upon a citizen when it is still unknown whether he is innocent or guilty?

I am one of the people who love the why of things.

If I may venture to be frank I would say about myself that I was every inch a gentleman.

to tempt and be tempted are closely allied; and in spite of all the finest moral maxims buried in the mind, when emotion interferes, when feeling makes its appearance, one is already much further involved that one realizes, and I have still not learnt how to prevent its appearance.

Nothing is more difficult, in my opinion, than to avoid something that fundamentally attracts you.

If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.