If we’re to come to love a man, the man himself should stay hidden, because as soon as he shows his face – love vanishes.
I just said it for the beauty of the style.
You’ve already said all that. Don’t embroider on it, but prove it!
To confess one’s guilt and one’s original sin is little, very little; one must wean oneself away from them completely. And that takes more than a little time.
For socialism is not merely the labor question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism to-day, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to heaven from earth but to set up heaven on earth.
I exaggerate everything, that is where I go wrong.
Then the great hour struck, and every man showed himself in his true colors.
I should like to know what people fear the most: whatever is contrary to their usual habits, I imagine.
You have disgraced the name of Russia, madam!” shouted the general, “and there are police for that!
And is it only a dream, that in the end man will find his joy in deeds of enlightenment and mercy alone, and not in cruel pleasures as now?
Our own humble and meek ones, fasters and keepers of silence, will arise and go forth for a great deed.
Whoever does not believe in God will not believe in the people of God. But he who believes in the people of God will also see their holiness, even if he did not believe in it at all before.
Of the eternal questions, nothing else: is there a God, is there immortality? And those who do not believe in God will talk of socialism or anarchy, of the transformation of all humanity on a new pattern, which all comes to the same thing, they’re the same questions turned inside out.
You are more needed there. There is no peace there.
And before you know it, the object disappears, arguments evaporate; no culprit is discovered, the offense ceases to be an offense and becomes a matter of fate, like the toothache which cannot be blamed on anyone, and the only thing that’s left is, once again, to bang the wall as hard as you can.
If you sin yourself and grieve even unto death for your sins or for your sudden sin, then rejoice for others, rejoice for the righteous man, rejoice that if you have sinned, he is righteous and has not sinned.
I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.
What a book the Bible is, what a miracle, what strength is given with it to man. It s like a mould cast of the world and man and human nature, everything is there, and a law for everything for all the ages. And what mysteries are solved and revealed.
People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.
Strength, strength is what I need; nothing can be done without strength; and strength must be gained by strength.