“Try to be forgotten. Go live in the country. Stay in mourning for two years, then remarry, but choose somebody decent.”

Somewhere between obsession and compulsion is impulse.

Love passed, the Muse appeared, the weather of mind got clarity new-found; now free, I once more weave together emotion, thought, and magic sound.

I am married and happy. My only wish is that nothing will change.

Two fixed ideas can no more exist together in the moral world than two bodies can occupy one and the same place in the physical world.

A man who’s active and incisive can yet keep nail-care much in mind: why fight what’s known to be decisive? Custom is despot of mankind.

To love all ages yield surrender; But to the young it’s raptures bring A blessing bountiful and tender- As storms refresh the fields of spring.

A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.

Tis time, my friend, ’tis time! For rest the heart is aching; Days follow days in flight, and every day is taking, Fragments of being, while together you and I, Make plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die.

The less we show our love to a woman, Or please her less, and neglect our duty, The more we trap and ruin her surely, In the flattering toils of philandery.

Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.

As long as there is one heart on Earth where I still live, my memory will not die.

Cabbage soup and barley. They’re Russia’s national food. Both excellent in their way, but a shade monotonous.

I want to understand you, I study your obscure language.

Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul.

Play interests me very much,” said Hermann: “but I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous.

Write for pleasure and publish for money.