Patriotism is "a very definite feeling of preference for one's own people or State above all other peoples and States, and a consequent wish to get for that people or State the greatest advantages and power that can be got - things which are obtainable only at the expense of the advantages and power of other peoples or States."

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

We are all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all invent means of deceiving each other. And when one sees the truth, what is one to do?

The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.

Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about.

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed through words, so to convey this so that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.