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

Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.

It is necessary that every man have at least somewhere to go. For there are times when one absolutely must go at least somewhere!

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. . . .

Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.

It’s not God that I don’t accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket.

He who masters the grey everyday is a hero.