The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me?

Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.

It seems as though mankind has forgotten the laws of its divine Saviour, Who preached love and forgiveness of injuries—and that men attribute the greatest merit to skill in killing one another.

As soon as man applies his intelligence to any object at all, he unfailingly destroys the object.

Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.

My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.

What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the willso fo the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person express the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.