It's in the homes of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness.

And if there's love, you can do without happiness too. Even with sorrow, life is sweet.

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

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

I saw clear as daylight how strange it is that not a single person living in this mad world has had the daring to go straight for it all and send it flying to the devil! I...I wanted to have the daring...and I killed her.

That's just the point: an honest and sensitive man opens his heart, and the man of business goes on eating - and then he eats you up.

I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I think my liver is diseased. Then again, I don't know a thing about my illness; I'm not even sure what hurts.