Fall down seven times, stand up eight. - Chinese proverbWithout music, life would be a mistake.

In Russia there is an emigration of intelligence: émigrés cross the frontier in order to read and to write good books. But in doing so they contribute to making their fatherland, abandoned by spirit, into the gaping jaws of Asia that would like to swallow our little Europe.

We count the courtesies accorded us by unpopular people as offenses.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

I enquire now as to the genesis of a philologist and assert the following: 1. A young man cannot possibly know what Greeks and Romans are. 2. He does not know whether he is suited for finding out about them.

To our strongest impulse, to the tyrant in us, not only our reason but also our conscience yields.

Books for all the world are always foul-smelling books: the smell of small people clings to them.