In simple hearts the feeling for the beauty and grandeur of nature is a hundred-fold stronger and more vivid than in us, ecstatic composers of narratives in words and on paper.

Russian ladies, for the most part, cherish only Platonic love, without mingling any thought of matrimony with it; and Platonic love is exceedingly embarrassing.

I was born, so that the whole world could be a spectatorOf my triumph or my doom.

One should never spurn a penitent criminal: in his despair he may become twice as much a criminal as before.

In the first place, [his eyes] never laughed when he laughed. Have you ever noticed this peculiarity some people have? It is either the sign of an evil nature or of a profound and lasting sorrow.

Women only love those that they don’t know.

My whole life has been merely a succession of miserable and unsuccessful denials of feelings or reason.