“Levin was almost of the same age as Oblonsky; their intimacy did not rest merely on champagne. Levin had been the friend and companion of his early youth. They were fond of one another in spite of the difference of their characters and tastes, as friends are fond of one another who have been together in early youth. But in spite of this, each of them—as is often the way with men who have selected careers of different kinds—though in discussion he would even justify the other's career, in his heart despised it. It seemed to each of them that the life he led himself was the only real life, and the life led by his friend was a mere phantasm. Oblonsky could not restrain a slight mocking smile at the sight of Levin. How often he had seen him come up to Moscow from the country where he was doing something, but what precisely Stepan Arkadyevitch could never quite make out, and indeed he took no interest in the matter. Levin arrived in Moscow always excited and in a hurry, rather ill at ease and irritated by his own want of ease, and for the most part with a perfectly new, unexpected view of things. Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed at this, and liked it. In the same way Levin in his heart despised the town mode of life of his friend, and his official duties, which he laughed at, and regarded as trifling. But the difference was that Oblonsky, as he was doing the same as every one did, laughed complacently and good-humoredly, while Levin laughed without complacency and sometimes angrily.”

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.”

“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“The laws of the universe are never broken. Your mistake is to think that the little regularities we have observed on one planet for a few hundred years are the real unbreakable laws; whereas they are only the remote results which the true laws bring about more often than not; as a kind of accident.”

“If you can get yourself to read 30 minutes a day, you're going to double your income every year.”

“We need to be able to step back from our situations and see them from God’s perspective. Then we need to make decisions based on what we know rather than on what we feel.”

“Isaiah 9:6–7 says, “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end” (italics mine). The government that is upon the shoulders of Jesus is not a political government; the verse is referring to the governing of our lives. We are not supposed to be running our own lives. In fact, we are not capable or qualified to run our own lives. Not one of us is intelligent enough to know what is best. That is why we should be thankful for God’s interference.” 

“Prayer in action is love, love in action is service.”

“two of them together affect you emotionally and turn into moods and attitudes. If you truly want to be in a good mood on a regular basis, you can start by choosing to think about things that will generate good emotions instead of bad ones.”

“Failing is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night.”

“Common people with uncommon goals who make an uncommon commitment can help an uncommon number of people who can also lead other common people to do uncommon things. Develop your potential to the full. And as you do, lead others in developing theirs. Be all you can be. Then help someone else be all they can be.”

“It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself.”

“And He [God] and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into any kind of touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble--delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life.”

“All that appears and happens about and around us is uncertain, transient.”

“You radiate and generate more goodness for yourself; when you're aware of all you have”