She felt something warm and velvety by her leg. It was Behemoth.
Twelve thousand moons for one moon long ago, isn’t that too much?
The thought that there is no greater misfortune in the world than the loss of reason? Yes, yes, of course, that, too. But that – that’s only a general thought. There’s something else. What is it? An insult, that’s what. Yes, yes, insulting words hurled right in his face by Homeless. And the trouble is not that they were insulting, but that there was truth in them.
It’s all over,’ the cat said in a weak voice, sprawled languidly in a pool of blood, ‘step back from me for a second, let me say farewell to the earth. Oh, my friend Azazello,’ moaned the cat, bleeding profusely, ‘where are you?’ The cat rolled his fading eyes in the direction of the dining-room door. ‘You did not come to my aid in the moment of unequal battle, you abandoned poor Behemoth, exchanging him for a glass of – admittedly very good – cognac!
Who is official and who is unofficial these days? It all depends on your point of view. It’s all so vague and changeable, Nikanor Ivanovich. Today I’m unofficial, tomorrow, hey presto! I’m official! Or maybe vice-versa – who knows?
This second one, evidently a lefty, socked the administrator on the other ear. In response there was another roll of thunder in the sky, and rain poured down on the wooden roof of the toilet.
And who’s going to pay the rent – Pushkin?
Understand that the tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes – never!
My speeches in no way resemble verbal muck, as you have been pleased to put it in the presence of a lady, but rather a sequence of tightly packed syllogisms, the merit of which would be appreciated by such connoisseurs as Sextus Empiricus, Martianus Capella,4 and, for all I know, Aristotle himself.
Everything was in a mess in the Oblonskys.
What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by living things and people.
No, what’s the use, there’s no leaving a place like this for any amount of freedom, thought the dog sniffing dismally, I’ve got used to it. I’m a gentleman’s dog, an intelligent being, acquired a taste for the good things of life. And what is freedom? Smoke, mirage, fiction... the raving of those unhappy-democrats...
Who art thou, then?” “Part of that Power which eternally wills evil and eternally works good.” Goethe – Faust.
Miserable, I paced up and down the twilit study. When I came up to the lamp I caught sight of the reflection of my pale face and of the light of the lamp in the window set against the boundless darkness of the fields. ‘I’m like Dmitry the Pretender – nothing but a sham,’ I thought stupidly and sat down at the table again.
I had to be calm and cautious yet at the same time utterly decisive and unfaltering.
No, even when I’m on the verge of sleep I shall never again boast that nothing can surprise me. Now that this year is past, the next year will be just as full of surprises as the first. One never stops learning.
He who does not hurry manages to get everywhere.
The weary man knows it. And without regret he leaves the mists of the earth, its swamps and rivers, with a light heart he gives himself into the hands of death, knowing that she alone can bring him peace.
Woland silently raised his class and clinked with Margarita. Margarita drank obediently, thinking that this alcohol would be the end of her. But nothing bad happened.
The procurator studied the newcomer with greedy and slightly frightened eyes. So one looks at a man of whom one has heard a great deal, of whom one has been thinking, and who finally appears.