“Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.”

“Nothing in the world can one imagine beforehand,not the least thing,everything is made up of so many unique particulars that cannot be forseen.”

“Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner.”

“But she was not even grateful to him for it; nothing good on Pierre's part seemed to her to be an effort, it seemed so natural for him to be kind to everyone that there was no merit in his kindness.”

“If I knew beforehand that I’d need a good backhand, I’d never have taken up tennis. Or bitch slapping.”

“Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.”