They're thinking of turning the peasant into an educated man. Why, first of all they should make him a good and prosperous farmer and then he'll learn all that is necessary for him to know.

I saw that I'd get nowhere on the straight path, and that to go crookedly was straighter.

Whatever you may say, the body depends on the soul.

Steeds, steeds, what steeds! Has the whirlwind a home in your manes?

In the course of reading he [Alexander Pushkin] became more and more melancholy and finally became completely gloomy. When the reading was over he uttered in a voice full of sorrow: "Goodness, how sad is our Russia!"

What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself.

For public opinion does not admit that lofty rapturous laughter is worthy to stand beside lofty lyrical emotion and that there isall the difference in the world between it and the antics of a clown at a fair.