Civilization merely develops man's capacity for a greater variety of sensations, and ... absolutely nothing else.

It suddenly seemed to me that I was lonely, that every one was forsaking me and going away from me. Of course, any one is entitled to ask who "every one" was. For though I had been living almost eight years in Petersburg I had hardly an acquaintance. But what did I want with acquaintances? I was acquainted with all Petersburg as it was.

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

There is immeasurably more left inside than what comes out in words.

It is a law of nature that every decent man on earth is bound to be a coward and a slave

Let us first fulfill Christ's injunction ourselves and only then venture to expect it of our children. Otherwise we are not fathers, but enemies of our children, and they are not our children, but our enemies, and we have made them our enemies ourselves.

And you're sorry that the ephemeral beauty has faded so rapidly, so irretrievably, that it flashed so deceptively and pointlessly before your eyes - you're sorry, for you didn't even have time to fall in love.