A human being is all hope and impatience.

A meek fellow ... is a real godsend in any gang.

Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Use your memory! Use your memory! It is those bitter seeds alone which might sprout and grow someday.

In military science there is a principle more important than "Forward": it is that the task should be proportionate to the means.

Morality is always higher than law and we cannot forget this ever.

Mourn if you must, but don't stop fighting.

... a man can safely sacrifice a great deal as long as he clings to the essential.

How quickly a zek (a prisoner) gets cheeky-or, putting it in literary language, how quickly a man's requirements grow.

You're sincere, but in order not to upset your views you avoid talking with people who think differently. You pick your thoughts from conversations with people like yourself, from books written by people like yourself. In physics they call it resonance. You start out with modest opinions, but they match and build each other up to a scale ...

Was it Gorky who said: "If your children are no better than you are, you have fathered in vain, indeed you have lived in vain."