What was so wrong with us? We were young, healthy, matched in every way. Live and be happy. No, I had to show my strength, be moody. What a fool. And I didn’t understand that I was a fool; after all, I do have some brains, but I couldn’t stop myself.

Lately, Nastoyna felt that she had no right to criticize anyone at all – no man, no animal, no bird, because each lived his own life, which was not in his control and which he could not change.

Believe them and they’ll tell you all sorts of things.

Everything, that she was saying, now, everything that she saw and heard, took place in a deep numbness, in which all the senses are stilled and a person exists not in one’s own life but with some emergency life that is stuck onto one. In such situations fear, pain, surprise and enlightenment come later, and until such time as one comes to one’s senses, this sober, sturdy, and almost unfeeling mechanism takes over.

Of course, you could live without asking questions, just live the way life comes, float with the current, but, I'm crazy that way: I must know why and wherefore, dig down to the truth myself. That's why I'm a man.

Whether a person is in bed or walking along and is struck by sudden death, it's right for humans to die on solid ground, with the earth beneath their feet and air trying to get into the lungs.

Everything, that she was saying, now, everything that she saw and heard, took place in a deep numbness, in which all the senses are stilled and a person exists not in one's own life but with some emergency life that is stuck onto one. In such situations fear, pain, surprise and enlightenment come later, and until such time as one comes to one's senses, this sober, sturdy, and almost unfeeling mechanism takes over.

It's a fact that even death looks good in company.

There's nothing left holy in the world for you. Herods!

Slowly but surely life becomes normal, and a man gets used to it, it doesn't happen any other way.