Russia, are you not speeding along like a fiery and matchless troika? Dead Souls

If thou would estimate thyself, put away wealth, land, honors; scrutinize thyself within. Day's Collacon

I'll tell you ... what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter -- as I did! Great Expectations

Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself -- in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity -- is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them. On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense