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.

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

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

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

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.

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