And so I ask myself: 'Where are your dreams?' And I shake my head and mutter: 'How the years go by!' And I ask myself again: 'What have you done with those years? Where have you buried your best moments? Have you really lived? Look,' I say to myself, 'how cold it is becoming all over the world!' And more years will pass and behind them will creep grim isolation. Tottering senility will come hobbling, leaning on a crutch, and behind these will come unrelieved boredom and despair. The world of fancies will fade, dreams will wilt and die and fall like autumn leaves from the trees. . . .
Fyodor DostoevskyA widow, the mother of a family, and from her heart she produces chords to which my whole being responds.
Fyodor DostoevskyAh, Father! Thatโs words and only words! Forgive! If heโd not been run over, heโd have come home today drunk and his only shirt dirty and in rags and heโd have fallen asleep like a log, and I should have been sousing and rinsing till daybreak, washing his rags and the childrenโs and then drying them by the window and as soon as it was daylight I should have been darning them. Whatโs the use of talking forgiveness! I have forgiven as it is!
Fyodor Dostoevsky