* * * * *

So long as a man likes the splashing of a fish, he is a poet; but when he knows that the splashing is nothing but the chase of the weak by the strong, he is a thinker; but when he does not understand what sense there is in the chase, or what use in the equilibrium which results from destruction, he is becoming silly and dull, as he was when a child.  And the more he knows and thinks, the sillier he becomes.

* * * * *

The death of a child.  I have no sooner sat down in peace than—­bang—­fate lets fly at me.

* * * * *

The she-wolf, nervous and anxious, fond of her young, dragged away a foal into her winter-shelter, thinking him a lamb.  She knew that there was a ewe there and that the ewe had young.  While she was dragging the foal away, suddenly some one whistled; she was alarmed and dropped him, but he followed her.  They arrived at the shelter.  He began to suck like the young wolves.  Throughout the winter he changed but little; he only grew thin and his legs longer, and the spot on his forehead turned into a triangle.  The she-wolf was in delicate health.[1]

[Footnote 1:  A sketch of part of the story “Whitehead.”]

* * * * *

They invited celebrities to these evening parties, and it was dull because there are few people of talent in Moscow, and the same singers and reciters performed at all evening parties.

* * * * *

She has not before felt herself so free and easy with a man.

* * * * *

You wait until you grow up and I’ll teach you declamation.

* * * * *

It seemed to her that at the show many of the pictures were alike.

* * * * *

There filed up before you a whole line of laundry-maids.

* * * * *

Kostya insisted that the women had robbed themselves.

* * * * *

L. put himself in the place of the juryman and interpreted it thus:  if it was a case of house-breaking, then there was no theft, because the laundresses themselves sold the linen and spent the money on drink; but if it was a case of theft, then there could have been no house-breaking.

* * * * *

Fiodor was flattered that his brother had found him at the same table with a famous actor.

* * * * *

When Y. spoke or ate, his beard moved as if he had no teeth in his mouth.

* * * * *

Ivashin loved Nadya Vishnyevsky and was afraid of his love.  When the butler told him that the old lady had just gone out, but the young lady was at home, he fumbled in his fur coat and dress-coat pocket, found his card, and said:  “Right.”