Power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.

The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served as little as possible . . . and to serve others as much as possible.

Music makes me forget my real situation. It transports me into a state which is not my own. Under the influence of music I really seem to feel what I do not feel, to understand what I do not understand, to have powers which I cannot have. Music seems to me to act like yawning or laughter; I have no desire to sleep, but I yawn when I see others yawn; with no reason to laugh, I laugh when I hear others laugh. And music transports me immediately into the condition of soul in which he who wrote the music found himself at that time. ~The Kreutzer Sonata

The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.

I was now prepared to accept any faith so long as it did not demand a direct denial of reason, which would have been a deceit.

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

Nowadays, as before, the public declaration and confession of Orthodoxy is usually encountered among dull-witted, cruel and immoral people who tend to consider themselves very important. Whereas intelligence, honesty, straightforwardness, good-naturedness and morality are qualities usually found among people who claim to be non-believers.