“He could do nothing but twist his moustache, drink, and chatter the most inept nonsense that can possibly be imagined.”

“It's because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.”

“...in his heart of hearts he could almost wish that, when he was grown up, his life should consist of nothing but nonsense: just music, love, literature, carefree friendship, a life brimming with glorious, intoxicating Olympian nonsense.”

“Degredation is the subtlest drug, the most insinuating. But they could do nothing to me I had not already imagined.”

“Nevsky Avenue"Here you come across moustaches so wonderful that neither pen nor brush can do justice to them, moustaches to which the best years of a lifetime have been devoted-the object of long hours of vigil by day and by night; moustaches upon which all the perfumes of Arabia have been lavished, the most exquisite scents and essences, and which have been anointed with the rarest and most precious pomades; moustaches which are wrapped up for the night in the most delicate vellum; moustaches for which their possessors show a most touching affection and which are the envy of all those who behold them. ”

“No man can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips.”