"What is robbing a bank compared to founding one?"

"It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk."

"For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again."

"One must live well to know what living is."

"Art is not a mirror. Art is a hammer."

"Happy is the people who need no heroes."

"What are you working on?” Mr. K. was asked. Mr. K. replied: “I’m having a hard time; I’m preparing my next mistake."

"Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels"

"I want to go with the one I love. I do not want to calculate the cost. I do not want to think about whether it's good. I do not want to know whether he loves me. I want to go with whom I love..."

"Thinking is one of the greatest pleasures of the human race."

"Such a lot is won when even a single man gets to his feet and says No"

"Every day, to earn my daily bread I go to the market where lies are bought Hopefully I take up my place among the sellers."

"When the waters poured into Atlantis, the rich men still screamed for their slaves."

"Art is not a mirror to hold up to reality, rather a hammer to shape it."

"Corpses sour you. They are bad for objectivity."

"The wickedness of the world is so great, you have to keep running so your legs won't be stolen from under you!"

"For once you must try not to shirk the facts: Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts."

"Every time you name yourself, you name someone else."

"He thought in other heads, and in his own, others besides himself thought"

"Sin is what is new, strong, surprising, strange. The theatre must take an interest in sin if the young are to be able to go there."

"Grub first, then ethics."

"Sitting and sedition don't mix."

"In the dark times will there be singing? Yes. There will be singing about the dark times."

"I'm teaching all the time. When am I to learn?"

"I won't let you spoil my war for me. Destroys the weak, does it? Well, what does peace do for'em, huh? War feeds its people better."

"He was weak on philosophy and an excellent driver, but his driving was a lot more dangerous than his philosophy."

"What kind of times are these, when To talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?"

"The rope has been torn; a knot Can tie it again, but It’s been torn. Perhaps we’ll meet again, but You won’t find me In the place where we parted ways."

"The aim of science is not to open the door to everlasting truth, but to set a limit on everlasting error."

"Weaknesses You had none I had one: I loved."

"In my poetry a rhyme Would seem to me almost insolent. Inside me contend Delight at the apple tree in blossom And horror at the house-painter’s speeches. But only the second Drives me to my desk."

"All the world says: yes we know what’s written in the books but now let’s see what our eyes tell us."

"When the Chinese Wall was built, where'd the masons go for lunch? When Caesar conquered Gaul, was there not even a cook in the army? When the Armada sank, King Philip wept. Were there no other tears?"

"Art is not a mirror held up to society but a hammer with which to shape it."

"For time is short and the unknown surrounds us; and it isn't enough just to live unthinking and happy, calmly bearing oppression and only learning wisdom with age."

"It's all right to hesitate if you then go ahead."

"Old Man, right (sighing): Death to the fascists!"

"A Man lives off his head. His head won't see him through. Inspect your own— What lives on that? At most, a louse or two . . ."

"Boy meets girl. So what?"

"Unhappily, my wife is expecting me in connection with a fish"

"Mixing one's wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably. The Singer, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, prologue (1944)."

"Mankind lives by its head Its head won't see him through Inspect your own. What lives off that? At most a louse or two."

"THE POLICEMAN: I'm a policeman. I'm paid by those in charge to combat dissatisfaction."

"Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero! No, Andrea....unhappy is the land that needs a hero."

"Life is short and so is money."

"It is many years ago and at times I know nothing about her anymore who was once all things to me but all things pass. (The Eleventh Psalm)"

"Proof seduces them. One of the greatest pleasures of the human race is thinking."

"I hope I can pull the wagon by myself. Yes, I'll manage, there's not much in it now. I must get back into business."

"I discovered our dear poet in my office, a simple clerk."

"Girl Tractorist: As the poet Mayakovsky said: "The home of the Soviet people shall be the home of Reason"!"