He who desires to see the living God face-to-face should not seek him in the empty, firmament of his mind, but in human love.

I sometimes think love consists precisely of the voluntary gift by the loved object of the right to tyrannize over it.

Love a man, even in his sin, for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth.

We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'.

There is only one way to salvation, and that is to make yourself responsible for all men's sins. As soon as you make yourself responsible in all sincerity for everything and for everyone, you will see at once that this is really so, and that you are in fact to blame for everyone and for all things.

If the spirit has passed through a great many sensations, possibly it can no longer be sated with them, but grows more excited, and demands more sensations, and stronger and stronger ones, until at length it falls exhausted.

.. But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that along with happiness, in the exact same way, in perfectly equal proportion, man also needs unhappiness