My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?

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Play interests me very much," said Hermann: "but I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous.

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..depression still kept guard on him, and chased after him like a shadow - or like a faithful wife.

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I’ve lived to bury my desires, And see my dreams corrode with rust; Now all that’s left are fruitless fires That burn my empty heart to dust.

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Thus people--so it seems to me-- Become good friends from sheer ennui.

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People are so like their first mother Eve: what they are given doesn't take their fancy. The serpent is forever enticing them to come to him, to the tree of mystery. They must have the forbidden fruit, or paradise will not be paradise for them.

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I was not born to amuse the Tsars.

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Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.

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My whole life has been pledged to this meeting with you...

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I want to understand you, I study your obscure language.

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