Anyone who has crossed from the district of Bolkhov into that of Zhizdra will probably have been struck by the sharp difference between the natives of the provinces of Orel and Kaluga.

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.

I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like. But i do know what the heart of a good man is like. And it is terrible.

We sit in the mud... and reach for the stars.

Go forward while you can, but if your strength fails you, sit down near the road and gaze without anger or envy at those who pass by. They don't have far to go, either.

Death's an old joke, but each individual encounters it anew.

Circumstances define us; they force us onto one road or another, and then they punish us for it.

Time, as is well known, sometimes flies like a bird and sometimes crawls like a worm, but human beings are generally particularly happy when they don't notice whether it's passing quickly or slowly.

Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.

Nothing is worse and more hurtful than a happiness that comes too late.

Take what you can yourself, and don't let others get you into their hands; to belong to oneself, that is the whole thing in life.

In the absence of love, we began slowly but surely to fall apart.

Unity! Duty! And destiny!

I shoot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care: I get my arrows wholesale!

You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second.

Hee that marries for wealth sells his liberty.

I'm not sure how healthy bacon is in general, but I know it's incredibly delicious.

stinginess seemed instinctive to him. Darwinian even. He hadn't gotten to his current size by sharing.

Never, never let a person know you're frightened. And a group of them ... absolutely never. Fear brings out the worst in everybody.

Nothing is more tragic - or more common - than mental inertia.

I know end might be near as this is only day of my adulthood I’ve seen my mother and she hasn’t asked, ‘Why that shirt?’