Anna Karenina (Penguin Classics)

In the morning the bright sun rose and quickly ate up the thin ice covering the water, and the warm air was all atremble, filled with the vapours of the reviving earth. The old grass and the sprouting needles of new grass greened, the buds on the guelder-rose, the currants and the sticky, spiritous birches swelled, and on the willow, all sprinkled

slovenliness

I discovered her. Charmante, a perfect Gretchen,4 and we’ve already become acquainted. The prettiest little thing, really!’

loquacity

‘I think,’ said Konstantin, ‘that no activity can be solid unless it’s based on personal interest. That is a general truth, a philosophical one,’ he said, resolutely repeating the word ‘philosophical’, as if wishing to show that he, too, had the right, like anyone else, to speak of philosophy.

When Levin thought about what he was and what he lived for, he found no answer and fell into despair; but when he stopped asking himself about it, he seemed to know what he was and what he lived for, because he acted and lived firmly and definitely; recently he had even lived much more firmly and definitely than before.

From Varenka she understood that you had only to forget yourself and love others and you would be calm, happy and beautiful.

But now we know that the pills of classical education contain the healing power of anti-nihilism, and we boldly offer them to our patients … And what if there is no healing power?’ he concluded, sprinkling his Attic salt.

What did it mean? It meant that his life was good, but his thinking was bad.