For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied... whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.

243

You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.

190

Power without a nation's confidence is nothing.

189

I may be kindly, I am ordinarily gentle, but in my line of business I am obliged to will terribly what I will at all.

159

In my position you have to read when you want to write and to talk when you would like to read . . .

129

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

125

I am one of the people who love the why of things.

115

I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.

89

If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.

62