There are passions that it is not for man to choose.

Like all of us sinners, General Betrishchev was endowed with many virtues and many defects. Both the one and the other were scattered through him in a sort of picturesque disorder. Self-sacrifice, magnanimity in decisive moments, courage, intelligence--and with all that, a generous mixture of self-love, ambition, vanity, petty personal ticklishness, and a good many of those things which a man simply cannot do without.

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

Two turtle doves will show thee Where my cold ashes lie And sadly murmuring tell thee How in tears I did die

What is stronger in us — passion or habit? Or are all the violent impulses, all the whirl of our desires and turbulent passions, only the consequence of our ardent age, and is it only through youth that they seem deep and shattering?

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

Everywhere across whatever sorrows of which our life is woven, some radiant joy will gaily flash past.