In sinning, each man sins against all, and each man is at least partly guilt for another's sin. There is no isolated sin.

The Russian soul is a dark place.

Loving someone is different from being in love with someone. You can hate someone you're in love with

Equality lies only in human moral dignity. ... Let there be brothers first, then there will be brotherhood, and only then will there be a fair sharing of goods among brothers.

If you happen to have a wart on your nose or forehead, you cannot help imagining that no one in the world has anything else to do but stare at your wart, laugh at it, and condemn you for it, even though you have discovered America.

We're always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that's all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can't help feeling that that's what it is.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.