Great Throughts Treasury

"An ugly act cannot repeat and you to repent for him, but bad thoughts are born only ugly does. Ugly act only paves the way for ugly deeds and bad thoughts irresistibly drawn that way."

"And as soon as her brother had reached her, [Anna] flung her left arm around his neck and drew him rapidly to her, and kissed him warmly, with a gesture that struck Vronsky by its decision and its grace. Vronsky gazed, never taking his eyes from her, and smiled, he could not have said why. But recollecting that his mother was waiting for him, he went back again into the carriage."

"And for him, who lived in a certain circle, and who required some mental activity such as usually develops with maturity, having views was as necessary as having a hat."

"And from the height of this perception all that had previously tormented and preoccupied him suddenly became illumined by a cold white light without shadows, without perspective, without distinction of outline. All life appeared to him like magic-lantern pictures at which he had long been gazing by artificial light through a glass. Now he suddenly saw those badly daubed pictures in clear daylight and without a glass."

"And he has to live like this on the edge of destruction, alone, with nobody at all to understand or pity him"

"And however much the princess was assured that in our time young people themselves must settle their fate, she was unable to believe it, as she would have been unable to believe that in anyone's time the best toys for five-year-old children would be loaded pistols."

"And I, too, am the same? only there is no love in my heart, or desire for love, no interest in work, not contentment in myself. And how remote and impossible my old religious enthusiasms seem now? and my former abounding life! What once seemed so plain and right ? that happiness lay in living for others ? is unintelligible now. Why live for others, when life has not attractions even for oneself?"

"And in spite of the fact that science, art, and politics had no special interest for him, he firmly held those views on all these subjects which were held by the majority and by his paper, and he only changed them when the majority changed them?or, more strictly speaking, he did not change them, but they imperceptibly changed of themselves within him."

"And indeed, if Yevgeny Irtenev was mentally deranged when he committed this crime, then everyone is similarly insane. The most mentally deranged people are certainly those who see in others indications of insanity they do not notice in themselves."

"And Levin, a happy father and a man in perfect health, was several times so near suicide that he hid the cord, lest he be tempted to hang himself, and was afraid to go out with his gun, for fear of shooting himself. But Levin did not shoot himself, and did not hang himself; he went on living."

"And so liberalism had become a habit of Stepan Arkadyevitch's, and he liked his newspaper, as he did his cigar after dinner, for the slight fog it diffused in his brain."

"And instead of an answer all I get is the same question posed in a much more complex."

"And just as the conclusions of the astronomers would have been vain and uncertain if not founded on observations of the seen heavens, in relation to a single meridian and a single horizon, so would my conclusions be vain and uncertain if not founded on that conception of right, which has been and will be always alike for all men, which has been revealed to me as a Christian, and which can always be trusted in my soul. The question of other religions and their relations to Divinity I have no right to decide, and no possibility of deciding."

"And so the Liberal Tendency Arkadyich Became a habit with Stepan, and he liked his newspaper, as he liked a Cigar after dinner, Produced for the Slight haze in his head it."

"And the angel's body was bared, and he was clothed in light so that eye could not look on him; and his voice grew louder, as though it came not from him but from heaven above. And the angel said: I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves, but by love. It was not given to the mother to know what her children needed for their life. Nor was it given to the rich man to know what he himself needed. Nor is it given to any man to know whether, when evening comes, he will need boots for his body or slippers for his corpse. I remained alive when I was a man, not by care of myself, but because love was present in a passer-by, and because he and his wife pitied and loved me. The orphans remained alive, not because of their mother's care, but because there was love in the heart of a woman a stranger to them, who pitied and loved them. And all men live not by the thought they spend on their own welfare, but because love exists in man. I knew before that God gave life to men and desires that they should live; now I understood more than that. I understood that God does not wish men to live apart, and therefore he does not reveal to them what each one needs for himself; but he wishes them to live united, and therefore reveals to each of them what is necessary for all. I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love."

"And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect."

"And so the arbitrary union of three incommensurate, mutually disconnected concepts became the basis of a bewildering theory... [by which] one of the lowest renderings of art, art for mere pleasure ? against which all of the master teachers warned ? was idealized as the ultimate in art."

"And the candlelight, under which she had read a book full of sorrows, delusion, misfortune and evil, flared up and became clearer than ever, lit her everything that had previously been darkness, began to crackling, blanched and extinguished forever."

"And then all at once love turns up, and you're done for, done for."

"And those who only know the non-platonic love have no need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of tragedy."

"And there in the middle, high above Prechistensky Boulevard, amidst a scattering of stars on every side but catching the eye through its closeness to the earth, its pure white light and the long uplift of its tail, shone the comet, the huge, brilliant comet of 1812, that popular harbinger of untold horrors and the end of the world. But this bright comet with its long, shiny tail held no fears for Pierre. Quite the reverse: Pierre?s eyes glittered with tears of rapture as he gazed up at this radiant star, which must have traced its parabola through infinite space at speeds unimaginable and now suddenly seemed to have picked its spot in the black sky and impaled itself like an arrow piercing the earth, and stuck there, with its strong upthrusting tail and its brilliant display of whiteness amidst the infinity of scintillating stars. This heavenly body seemed perfectly attuned to Pierre?s newly melted heart, as it gathered reassurance and blossomed into new life."

"And though she felt sure that his love for her was waning, there was nothing she could do, she could not in any way alter her relations to him. Just as before, only by love and by charm could she keep him. And so, just as before, only by occupation in the day, by morphine at night, could she stifle the fearful thought of what would be if he ceased to love her."

"And the light by which she had read the book filled with troubles, falsehoods, sorrow, and evil, flared up more brightly than ever before, lighted up for her all that had been in darkness, flickered, began to grow dim, and was quenched forever."

"And what was worst of all was that ?It? drew his attention to itself not in order to make him take some action but only that he should look at ?It?, look it straight in the face: look at it and without doing anything, suffer inexpressibly. And to save himself from this condition Ivan Ilych looked for consolations -- new screens -- and new screens were found and for a while seemed to save him, but then they immediately fell to pieces or rather became transparent, as if ?It? penetrated them and nothing could veil ?It?."

"And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful."

"And where love ends, hate begins."

"And what will be there, and what has there been here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in this life I did not and do not understand."

"Anna had been preparing herself for this meeting, had thought what she would say to him, but she did not succeed in saying anything of it; his passion mastered her. She tried to calm him, to calm herself, but it was too late. His feeling infected her. Her lips trembled so that for a long while she could say nothing. Yes, you have conquered me, and I am yours, she said at last, pressing his hands to her bosom. So it had to be, he said. So long as we live, it must be so. I know it now."

"And you know, when you think about the death of the joys of life is reduced, but it'll be quiet."

"Anna Arkadyevna read and understood, but it was distasteful to her to read, that is, to follow the reflection of other people?s lives. She had too great a desire to live herself. If she read that the heroine of the novel was nursing a sick man, she longed to move with noiseless steps about the room of a sick man; if she read of a member of Parliament making a speech, she longed to be delivering the speech; if she read of how Lady Mary had ridden after the hounds, and had provoked her sister-in-law, and had surprised everyone by her boldness, she too wished to be doing the same. But there was no chance of doing anything; and twisting the smooth paper knife in her little hands, she forced herself to read."

"Anna spoke not only naturally and intelligently, but intelligently and casually, without attaching any value to her own thoughts, yet giving great value to the thoughts of the one she was talking to."

"Anna had the faculty of blushing."

"Anna smiled, as people smile at the weaknesses of those they love. . ."

"Anna took a knife and fork in her beautiful, white, ring-adorned hands and began to demonstrate. She obviously could see that her explanation could not make anything understood, but, knowing that her speech was pleasant and her hands were beautiful, she went on explaining."

"Another's wife is a white swan, and ours is bitter wormwood."

"Answer me two more questions,? said the King. ?The first is, Why did the earth bear such grain then and has ceased to do so now? And the second is, Why your grandson walks with two crutches, your son with one, and you yourself with none? Your eyes are bright, your teeth sound, and your speech clear and pleasant to the ear. How have these things come about??"

"Armies are necessary, before all things, for the defense of governments from their own oppressed and enslaved subjects."

"Are there any papers from the office? asked Stepan Arkadyevitch, taking the telegram and seating himself at the looking-glass."

"Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of external signs, hands on to others feelings he has worked through, and other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them."

"Anything is better than lies and deceit!"

"Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs."

"Are we not all flung into the world for no other purpose than to hate each other, and so to torture ourselves and one another?"

"Art is destined to promulgate the truth that the well-being of men consists in their being united together, and to help to set up, in the place of the reign of force that now exits, the kingdom of God (Who is Love) that we all recognize as the highest goal of human life."

"Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity."

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

"Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge."

"Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all."

"Art is a human activity, whose purpose is the transmission of the highest and best feelings to which men have attained."

"Art should cause violence to be set aside and it is only art that can accomplish this."

"As a house can be only be built satisfactorily and durably when there is a foundation, and a picture can be painted only when there is something prepared to paint it on, so carnal love is only legitimate, reasonable, and lasting when it is based on the respect and love of one human being for another."