“It's not a matter of pride; it's a matter of principle. I simply will not bow, for I stand too tall for even the Heavens to climb.”

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

“Sometimes I think it's easier to stand up to the whole school -- or the whole world even -- than it is to stand up to one person, especially if that person really matters to you.”

“I feel the universe is telling me something. And it doesn't even matter if it's true or not. What matters is that I feel it, and believe it.”

“I don't know what I'm saying, really, but I guess it's like having a kid, though I don't have any kids. It's yours, you made it, and no matter what happens, you have that pride of ownership. You love it, even it it didn't amount to much.”

“Bow or not? Call back or not? Recognize him or not?" our hero wondered in indescribable anguish, "or pretend that I am not myself, but somebody else strikingly like me, and look as though nothing were the matter. Simply not I, not I—and that's all," said Mr. Golyadkin, taking off his hat to Andrey Filippovitch and keeping his eyes fixed upon him. "I'm . . . I'm all right," he whispered with an effort; "I'm . . . quite all right. It's not I, it's not I—and that is the fact of the matter.”