Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble. The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal—there's the trick!

Cowardice is the most terrible of vices.

Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that.

You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.

The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!

No one's fate is of any interest to you except your own.

But what can be done, the one who loves must share the fate of the one he loves.

I don't have any special talents, just an ordinary desire to live like a human being.

Why do smart people exist, if not to figure out convoluted problems?

Annushka has already bought the sunflower oil, and has not only bought it, but has already spilled it.

You spoke your words as though you denied the very existence of the shadows or of evil. Think, now: where would your good be if there were no evil and what would the world look like without shadow?

I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Less rules, more intuition.

I had only that one picture, Hitler, the Beast of Berlin, in which I had a part big enough to impress anyone. I tried for better roles over and over again

Sometimes when you get disappointment it makes you stronger.

When we think of his lone effort to live and its bleak reward, the mind turns to the myth "for His mercy endureth forever," with confiding revulsion.

It's amazing how large the things are that it's possible to overlook.

Governing a large state is like boiling a small fish.

Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, seperate, in the evening.

Every time I see high-trust cultures, I see a lessening of adversarialism.

Every rule in the book can be broken, except one - be who you are, and become all you were meant to be.