I walked along Nevsky Avenue.Actually it was more torture, humiliation, and bilious irritation than a stroll.

Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.

Everything seems stupid when it fails.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

How many ideas have there been in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years before they appeared?

Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!

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.