Ines

“In bed at night, as I ponder my many sins and exaggerated shortcomings, I get so confused by the sheer amount of things I have to consider that I either laugh or cry, depending on my mood. Then I fall asleep with the strange feeling of wanting to be different than I am or being different than I want to be, or perhaps of behaving differently than I am or want to be.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“The longer Levin mowed, the more often he felt those moments of oblivion during which it was no longer his arms that swung the scythe, but the scythe itself that lent motion to his whole body, full of life and conscious of itself, and, as if by magic, without a thought of it, the work got rightly and neatly done on its own. These were the most blissful moments.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“She heard Vronsky's impetuous ring and hastily wiped her tears, and not only wiped them but sat down by the lamp and opened the book, pretending to be calm. She had to show him that she was displeased that he had not come back as he had promised, only displeased, but in no way show him her grief and least of all her self-pity. She might have pity for herself, but not he for her. She did not want to fight, she reproached him for wanting to fight, but involuntarily she herself assumed a fighting position.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Liza is one of those naïve natures, like children, who don't understand what's good and what's bad. At least she didn't understand it when she was very young. And now she knows that this non-understanding becomes her. Now she may purposely not understand...but all the same it becomes her. You see, one and the same thing can be looked at tragically and be made into a torment, or can be looked at simply and even gaily. Perhaps you're inclined to look at things too tragically.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina