“It was only the vulgarly mediocre that repelled her.”

“She found it sinful and expensive to have sugar in her tea, although she herself never spent a penny on anything.”

“I must say, though, that a man who has staked his whole life on the card of a woman's love and who, when that card is trumped, falls to pieces and lets himself go to the dogs -- a fellow like that is not a man, not a male. You say he's unhappy -- you know best. But all the nonsense hasn't been taken out of him yet. I'm sure he really believes he's a smart fellow just because he reads that rag Galignani and saves a muzhik from a flogging once a month.”

“Nothing is worse and more hurtful than a happiness that comes too late. It can give no pleasure, yet it deprives you of that most precious of rights - the right to swear and curse at your fate!”

“First we've got to clear the ground.”

“The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.”

“What's important is that twice two is four and all the rest's nonsense.”