I have attained the rank of the public's entertainer--and that is all I can do! To know what should be done, and not to be able to do it, not to have the strength for your work--that is torture!" "That's it! Wait awhile!" said Foma, enthusiastically.

"Now tell me what one should do in order to live calmly; that is, in order to be satisfied with one's self." To Foma these words sounded loud, but empty, and their sounds died away without stirring any emotion in his heart, without giving rise to a single thought in his mind.
"You must always be in love with something unattainable to you.

A man grows in height by stretching himself upwards." Now that he had ceased speaking of himself, Yozhov began to talk more calmly, in a different voice.

His voice was firm and resolute, and his face assumed an expression of importance and sternness.

He stood in the centre of the room, his hand with outstretched fingers uplifted, and spoke as though he were reading: "Men are base because they strive for satiety.