Youth eats all the sugared fancy cakes and regards them as its daily bread. But there'll come a time when you'll start asking just for a crust.

Tempered, gradual animation, the methodical restrain of sensations and energies, the equilibrium of sickness and health in each creature--this is nature's essence, its immutable law, this is what it's based on and what it adheres to.

Don't force me into saying what I don't want to say, and what I won't say.

Great God, grant that twice two be not four.

Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.

I only know that I feel tired, antiquated; I feel as though I had been living a long, long time.

In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on my country's fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language!