I want to suffer so that I may love.

It is easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.

I am crazy about mysterious things.

Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering.

The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.

At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men's sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world.

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.