Maxim Gorky

Your books and maps are of no use if there's no land of righteousness.

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man — Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?

Yes, a human being can teach another one kindness — very simply!

Processing the human raw material is naturally more complicated than processing lumber.

Prison teaches no good — and Siberia doesn't either — but another human being can . . . yes, a human being can teach another one kindness — very simply!

There's a little book I'm thinking of writing — "Swan Song" is what I shall call it. The song of the dying.

Some one has to be kind, girl — some one has to pity people! Christ pitied everybody — and he said to us: "Go and do likewise!" I tell you — if you pity a man when he most needs it, good comes of it. 

There — you say — truth! Truth doesn't always heal a wounded soul.

One has to be able to count, if only so that at fifty one doesn't marry a girl of twenty.

It is quiet and peaceful here, the air is good, there are numerous gardens, and in them nightingales sing and spies lurk under the bushes.