“Faulty intuitions often get us into trouble.”

“You're Sappho, I'm Phaon, agreed.But there's one thing still troubling me:You don't know your way to the sea.”

“You know, when children are silent and proud, and they try to keep back their tears when they are in great trouble and suddenly break down, their tears fall in streams.”

“He seemed, indeed, to accept everything without the least condemnation though often grieving bitterly.”

“In a morbid condition of the brain, dreams often have a singular actuality, vividness, and extraordinary semblance of reality.”

“It must be true that the whole second half of a man's life is most often made up only of habits accumulated during the first half.”

“What answer had your lecturer in Moscow to make to the question why he was forging notes? 'Everybody is getting rich one way or another, so I want to make haste to get rich too.' I don't remember the exact words, but the upshot was that he wants money for nothing, without waiting or working! We've grown used to having everything ready-made, to walking on crutches, to having our food chewed for us. Then the great hour struck, and every man showed himself in his true colours.”