Sublime

“Is this good or bad?” Pierre asked himself. “It is good for me, bad for another traveler, and for himself it’s unavoidable, because he needs money for food; the man said an officer had once given him a thrashing for letting a private traveler have the courier horses. But the officer thrashed him because he had to get on as quickly as possible. And

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

think … if there are as many minds as there are men, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.’

The merit of a man is not in the knowledge he possesses, but in the effort he made to achieve it.

Qu’arrivera-t-il si toute ma vie, ma vie consciente, n’a pas été ce qu’elle devait être? » Il se mit à songer que cette hypothèse, jugée d’abord par lui inadmissible, pouvait bien être la vérité et que sa vie n’était peut-être pas exempte de reproches. Il se rappela ses rares moments de révolte contre ce que la haute société approuvait. Ces moments

Une année à peine après son mariage, il comprit que la vie de famille, tout en présentant quelques avantages, était cependant une chose très compliquée et très pénible, et que, pour mener une vie convenable, approuvée par la société, il fallait une règle dans le mariage comme dans le service.

Sergei Ivanovich, who knew like no one else how to add some Attic salt8 to the end of a most abstract and serious discussion

We live a senseless life, contrary to the understanding of life by the wisest people of all times. This happens because our young generations are educated in the wrong way—they are taught different sciences but they are not taught the meaning of life.