History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.

Mathematics is the queen of disciplines.... it will drive the nonsense out of your head!

The main qualities that had earned him this universal respect in the service were, first, an extreme indulgence towards people, based on his awareness of his own shortcomings; second, a perfect liberalism, not the sort he read about in the newspapers, but the sort he had in his blood, which made him treat all people, whatever their rank or status, in a perfectly equal and identical way; and, third - most important - a perfect indifference to the business he was occupied with, owing to which he never got carried away and never made mistakes.

I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven't I?

The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness.

The question was a fashionable one, whether a definite line exists between psychological and physiological phenomena in human activity; and if so, where it lies?

He felt that all his hitherto dissipated and dispersed forces were gathered and directed with terrible energy towards one blissful goal.