The humour of Dostoievsky is the humour of a barloafer who ties a kettle to a dog's tail.

When some incident has shattered the career you’ve mapped out for yourself, a folly, a crime or a misfortune, you mustn’t think you’re down and out. It may be a stroke of luck, and when you look back years later you may say to yourself that you wouldn’t for anything in the world exchange the new life disaster has forced upon you for the dull, humdrum existence you would have led if circumstances hadn’t intervened.

Any society that values wealth above freedom will lose its freedom, and will ultimately lose its wealth as well

Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

Sherry, the civilized drink.

No egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul.