However passionate, sinning, and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep serenely at us with their innocent eyes; they tell us not of eternal peace alone, of that great peace of "indifferent" nature: they tell us, too, of eternal reconciliation and of life without end.

Anyone who has crossed from the district of Bolkhov into that of Zhizdra will probably have been struck by the sharp difference between the natives of the provinces of Orel and Kaluga.

Take what you can yourself, and don't let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.

So long as one's just dreaming about what to do, one can soar like an eagle and move mountains, it seems, but as soon as one starts doing it one gets worn out and tired.

However much you knock at nature's door, she will never answer you in comprehensible words.

It's all romanticism, nonsense, rottenness, art.

He was the soul of politeness to everyone -- to some with a hint of aversion, to others with a hint of respect.