"A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and the artist."

From the child of five to myself is but a step. But from the newborn baby to the child of five is an appalling distance.

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Music is love in search of a voice.

The military world is characterized by the absence of freedom - in other words, a rigorous discipline-enforced inactivity, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery and drunkenness.

Levin scowled. The humiliation of his rejection stung him to the heart, as though it were a fresh wound he had only just received. But he was at home, and at home the very walls are a support.

The ideas of the wise have been tested by centuries. Everything medium is lost and only original, deep and useful things are left.