He knew she was there by the joy and terror that took possession of his heart [...] Everything was lit up by her. She was the smile that brightened everything around.

A wound in the soul, coming from the rending of the spiritual body, strange as it may seem, gradually closes like a physical wound. And once a deep wound heals over and the edges seem to have knit, a wound in the soul, like a physical wound, can be healed only by the force of life pushing up from inside. This was the way Natasha's wound healed. She thought her life was over. But suddenly her love for her mother showed her that the essence of life - love - was still alive in her. Love awoke, and life awoke.

She did not want to talk of her sorrow, but with that sorrow in her heart she could not talk of outside matters.

God forgive me everything!' she said, feeling the impossibility of struggling.

The recognition of the sanctity of the life of every man is the first and only basis of all morality.

What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.

Man discovers truth by reason only, not by faith.