When one loves somebody everything is clear - where to go, what to do - it all takes care of itself and one doesn't have to ask anybody about anything.

In the carriages of the past you can't go anywhere.

I don’t ask you to believe me; I want you just to listen to me!” And if they listen, they will believe.

And he’s direct, clear, firm, like truth itself.

For sadness and gladness live within us side by side, almost inseparable; the one succeeding the other with an elusive, unappreciable swiftness.

A man must preserve himself for his work and must be thoroughly acquainted with the road to it. A man, dear, is like the pilot on a ship. In youth, as at high tide, go straight! A way is open to you everywhere. But you must know when it is time to steer. The waters recede – here you see a sandbank, there, a rock; it is necessary to know all this and to slip off in time, in order to reach the harbour safe and sound.

Jazz may be a thrilling communion with the primitive soul; or it may be an ear-splitting bore.

All parents wash away their sins with their tears; you are not the only one.

God created man in his own image and after his own likeness. Therefore he is like man if man is like him.

They destroy lives with work. What for? They rob men of their lives. What for, I ask? My master – I lost my life in the textile mill of Nefidov – my master presented one prima donna with a golden wash basin. Every one of her toilet articles was gold. That basin holds my life-blood, my very life. That’s for what my life went! A man killed me with work in order to comfort his mistress with my blood. He bought her a gold wash basin with my blood.