“What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.”

“Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let's have a philosophical conversation.”

“Den der har evnen, har også forpligtelsen”

“Turning a manuscript into a book is easy; getting the manuscript ready to become a book is hard.”

“To get profit without risk, experience without danger, and reward without work, is as impossible as it is to live without being born.”

“Levedev: It's no great thing to drink - a horse too can drink... No, one must drink intelligently... in our time we used to struggle with lectures all day, but as soon as evening came we went straight off somewhere where the lights were shining and spun like tops til dawn... ... We would talk nonsense and philosophy till our tongues went numb... But today's lot... I don't understand... They wouldn't make God a candle or the Devil a poker.”

“Formerly, when I would feel a desire to understand someone, or myself, I would take into consideration not actions, in which everything is relative, but wishes. Tell me what you want and I'll tell you who you are.”