You Can't Imagine How Stupid The Whole

Like All Of Us Sinners, General Betrishchev Was Endowed With Many Virtues And Many Defects. Both The One And The Other Were Scattered Through Him In A Sort Of Picturesque Disorder. Self-sacrifice, Magnanimity In Decisive Moments, Courage, Intelligence--and With All That, A Generous Mixture Of Self-love, Ambition, Vanity, Petty Personal Ticklishness, And A Good Many Of Those Things Which A Man Simply Cannot Do Without.

As It Is So Strangely Ordained In This World, What Is Amusing Will Turn Into Being Gloomy, If You Stand Too Long Before It, And Then God Knows What Ideas May Not Stray Into The Mind... Why Is It That Even In Moments Of Unthinking, Careless Gaiety A Different And Strange Mood Comes Upon One?

The Longer And More Carefully We Look At A Funny Story, The Sadder It Becomes.

I Am Fated To Journey Hand In Hand With My Strange Heroes And To Survey The Surging Immensity Of Life, To Survey It Through The Laughter That All Can See And Through The Tears Unseen And Unknown By Anyone.

There Are People Who Exist In This World Not Like Entities But Like The Speckles Or Spots On Something.