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!

Great God, grant that twice two be not four.

A son is like a lopped off branch. As a falcon he comes when he wills and goes where he lists.

Everyone needs help from everyone else.

All human beings hang by a thread, an abyss may open under their feet at any moment, and yet they have to go and invent all sortsof difficulties for themselves and spoil their lives.

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

Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.