There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery.

If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment—as well as the prison.

He knelt down in the middle of the square and bowed to the earth, and kissed that filthy earth with bliss and rapture.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

Be the sun and all will see you. The sun has before all to be the sun.

He suddenly recalled Sonia’s words, ‘Go to the cross-roads, bow down to the people, kiss the earth… and say aloud to the whole world, I am a murderer.’ … It came over him like a fit… He fell to the earth on the spot…. He knelt down… and kissed that filthy earth with bliss and rapture.

I divined then, Sonia, that power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up… There is only one thing, one thing needful: one has only to dare! … I— I wanted to have the daring… and I killed her. I only wanted to have the daring, Sonia! That was the whole cause of it!

Nothing easier; clever people are caught by the simplest things.

Eternity, you know, is a room as small as a bathhouse… and rather stuffy.

We are fond of high words, but life is made of trifles.

That is the beginning of a new story, the story of the gradual renewal of a man, of his gradual regeneration…

They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; that is, the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.