Despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him, and gave him medicines to drink, he recovered. [sometimes quoted as "Though the doctors trea… - Leo Tolstoy

Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.

But despite the fact that the doctors treated him, bled him, and gave him medicines to drink — he recovered.

If one has no vanity in this life of ours, there is no sufficient reason for living.

I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible… except by getting off his back.

Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion — science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured, as being a citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore as an Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known.