"I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it."
“我依旧会对车夫伊凡发脾气，依旧会同人争吵，依旧会不得体地发表意见，依旧会在我心灵最奥秘的地方同别人隔着一道鸿沟，甚至同我的妻子也不例外，依旧会因自己的恐惧而责备她，并因此感到后悔，我的智慧依旧无法理解，我为什么要祷告，但我依旧会祷告，——不过，现在我的生活，我的整个生活，不管遇到什么情况，每分钟不但不会象以前那样空虚，而且我有权使生活具有明确的善的含义！”