“It is one of the triumphs of the human that he can know a thing and still not believe it.”

“Knowing there's one thing I still haven't told you: I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen. ”

“Yet, isn't it strange, isn't it weird, how we can KNOW that someone is not behaving in the way we imagine, and at the same time we can be totally convinced that he is! How clever the human mind is, that it can accept two contradictory things as 'facts.' Yes, I know that in this case one 'fact' was untrue. But the human mind can KNOW something is untrue and still accept it as a 'fact,' and act on it as if it were true.”

“No one can know a false thing, one can only believe it with certainty until it is contradicted. (Page 7)”

“Though I do not believe in the order of things, still the sticky little leaves that come out in the spring are dear to me, the blue sky is dear to me, some people are dear to me, whom one loves sometimes, would you believe it, without even knowing why; some human deeds are dear to me, which one has perhaps long ceased believing in, but still honors with one's heart, out of old habit..."--Ivan Karamazov”

“Human beings are such knotted, desperate pieces of work-it's a rare thing to know one completely, to the core, and still love him.”