“Just think, reader, what will happen to you if the truth of a mad beast overpowers the sane truth of man?”

Talent I say is what an actor needs. And talent is faith in oneself, one’s own powers.

One word of praise from a woman is dearer to me than a whole ode from a man.

It is quiet and peaceful here, the air is good, there are numerous gardens, and in them nightingales sing and spies lurk under the bushes.

Anger is like ice, and also quick to melt.

To an old man any place that’s warm is homeland.

Hunger can explain many acts. It can be said that all vile acts are done to satisfy hunger.

When everything is easy one quickly gets stupid.

Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.

An honest man is all right even if he’s an idiot…but a crook must have brains.

Remembrance of the past kills all present energy and deadens all hope for the future.

Politics is something similar to the lower physiological functions, with the unpleasant difference that political functions are unavoidably carried out in public.

The revolution has overthrown the monarchy, true! But perhaps this means that the revolution simply has driven the skin disease inside the organism.

When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.

Truth doesn’t always heal a wounded soul.

A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.

Let us not search for the guilty ones only among others, let us speak the bitter truth: we are all guilty each and every one of us.