“One must be cunning and wicked in this world.”

The law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.

There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.

The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.

Faith is the force of life.

Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know.

The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.

Rest, nature, books, music – such is my idea of happiness.

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.

Love those you hate you.

Don’t seek God in temples. He is close to you. He is within you. Only you should surrender to Him and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.

Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life.

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

Music is the shorthand of emotion.

Spring is the time of plans and projects.

It’s all God’s will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

The sober devil can hide his cloven hoof; but when the devil drinks he loses his cunning and grows honest.

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.

He is many things – dangerous and devious, cunning and deadly, a good friend and an implacable enemy – but he comes from an age when a man’s word was indeed precious.

More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness