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.

If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!

Human love serves to love those dear to us but to love one's enemies we need divine love.

And the cause of everything is that which we call God.

And so he who looks down at his feet will not know the truth, but he who discerns by the sun which way to go.

These prin­ciples laid down as in variable rules: that one must pay a card sharper, but need not pay a tailor; that one must never tell a lie to a man, but one may to a woman; that one must never cheat any one, but one may a husband; that one must never pardon an insult, but one may give one and so on. These principles were possibly not reasonable and not good, but they were of unfailing certainty, and so long as he adhered to them, Vronsky felt that his heart was at peace and he could hold his head up.

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.