There are people whom even children’s literature would corrupt. They read with particular enjoyment the piquant passages in the Psalter and in the Wi… - Anton Chekhov

"When dawn comes I'm sitting in bed with my arms around my knees and, since I have nothing to do, am trying to know myself. "Know yourself" — what splendid and useful advice; too bad the ancients never thought of showing how to use this advice."

Who keeps the tavern and serves up the drinks? The peasant. Who squanders and drinks up money belonging to the peasant commune, the school, the church? The peasant. Who would steal from his neighbor, commit arson, and falsely denounce another for a bottle of vodka? The peasant.

And only now, when he was gray-haired, had he fallen in love properly, thoroughly, for the first time in his life.