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We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

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You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange e...more

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For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a well, or something of...more

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If only you would go to the university," he said. "Only enlightened and holy people are interesting, it's only they who are wanted. The more of such p...more

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What is there flattering, amusing, or edifying in their carving your name on a tombstone, then time rubbing off the inscription together with the gild...more

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Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.

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You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

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Ivanov: And this whole romance of ours is commonplace and trite: he lost heart, and he lost his way. She came along, strong and brave in spirit, and g...more

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Lice consume grass, rust consumes iron, and lying the soul!

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LUBOV. I'm quite sure there wasn't anything at all funny. You oughtn't to go and see plays, you ought to go and look at yourself. What a grey life you...more

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MASHA: Isn’t there some meaning?TOOZENBACH: Meaning? … Look out there, it’s snowing. What’s the meaning of that?

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After us they'll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they'll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the s...more

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And the existence is tedious, anyway; it is a senseless, dirty business, this life.