Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy .

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" All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in it's own way ."


" By digging into our souls, we often dig up what might better have remained there unnoticed ."


" This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great- thoughts , actions ! They are all but grains of sand ."


" life has less charm when one thinks of death, but it is more peaceful ."


" Without knowing what I am, and why I am here it is impossible to live. Yet I can not know that and therefore I can't live ."



"In an infinity of time, and in an infinity of matter, in infinite space,a bubble , a bubble organism, separates itself, and that bubble mantains itself awhile and then bursts, and that bubble is - I"

" I used to say that in my body, in this grass, in this insect there takes place according to physical, chemical and physiological laws , a change of matter. And in all of us , including the aspens and the clouds and nebulae, evolution is proceeding.
       Evolution from what, into what? Unending evolution and struggle... as if there could be any direction and struggle in infinity! And I was surprised that inspite of the greatest effort of thought on the path, the meaning of life, the meaning of my impulses and my aspirations, was not revealed to me . But now I say that I know the meaning of my life; it is to live for God, for the soul. And that meaning inspite of it's clearness, is mystic and wonderful . And such is the meaning of all existence . "


" I looked for an answer to my question. But reason could not give me an answer- reason is in commensurable with the question. Life itself has given me the answer, in my knowledge of what is good and what is bad. And that knowledge I did not acquire in any way, it was given to me as to everybody, 'given' because I could not take it from anywhere.
          Where did I get it from? Was it by reason that I attained the knowledge that I must love my neighbour and not throttle him? They told me so when I was a child, and I gladly believed it, because they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason ! Reason has discovered the struggle for existenceand the law that I must throttle all those who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction reason makes. But the law of loving others, could not be discovered by reason because it is unreasonable. "


" But I know nothing, nothing ! And can know nothing but what is told to me and to everybody."


" Lying on his back he was now gazing at the high cloudless sky.' Don't I know that this is infinite space, and not a rounded vault? But however I may screw my eyes and strain my sight, I can not help seeing it round and limited, and despite my knowledge of it as limitless space, I am indubitably right when I see a firm blue vault, and more right than when I strain to see beyond it. "


" My reason will still not understand why I pray, but I shall still pray, and my life , my whole life, independently of anything that may happen to me, is every moment of it no longer meaningless as it was before, but has an unquestionable meaning of goodness with which I have the power to invest it ."