Speak of a wolf and you see his tail!

I bless the rising sun each day, and, as before, my heart sings to meet it, but now I love even more its setting, its long slanting rays & the soft tender gentle memories that come with them...’ -Father Zossima

To begin with unlimited freedom is to end with unlimited despotism.

Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.

There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.

For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments.

What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.