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'Anna Karenina' Quotes

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  • "The Karenins, husband and wife, continued living in the same house, met every day, but were complete strangers to one another. Aleksey Aleksandrovich made it a rule to see his wife every day, so that the servants might have no grounds for suppositions, but avoided dining at home. Vronsky was never at Aleksey Aleksandrovich's house, but Anna saw him away from home, and her husband was aware of it."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 4, Ch. 1

  • "Levin got up and escorted Kitty to the door. In their conversation everything had been said; it had been said that she loved him, and that she would tell her father and mother that he would come tomorrow morning."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 4, Ch. 13

  • "Oh, why didn't I die? It would have been better!"
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 4, Ch. 23

  • "'What doubt can you have of the Creator when you behold His creation?' the priest went on in the rapid customary jargon. 'Who has decked the heavenly firmament with its stars? Who has clothed the earth in its beauty? How could it be without the creator?' he said, looking inquiringly at Levin."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 5, Ch. 1

  • "Levin could not look calmly at his brother; he could not himself be natural and calm in his presence. When he went in to the sick man, his eyes and his attention were unconsciously dimmed, and he did not see and did not distinguish the details of his brother's condition. He smelled the awful odor, saw the dirt, disorder, and miserable condition, and heard the groans, and felt that nothing could be done to help. It never entered his head to analyze the details of the sick man's situation."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 5, Ch. 18

  • "But Kitty thought, and felt, and acted quite differently. On seeing the sick man, she pitied him. And pity in her womanly heart did not arouse at all that feeling of horror and loathing that it aroused in her husband, but a desire to act, to find out the details of his condition, and to remedy them."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 5, Ch. 18

  • "In spite of death, he felt the need for life and love. He felt that love saved him from despair, and that this love, under the threat of despair, had become still stronger and purer. The one mystery of death, still unsolved, had scarcely passed before his eyes, when another mystery had arisen, as insoluble, calling to love and to life. The doctor confirmed his suspicion about Kitty. Her indisposition was pregnancy."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 5, Ch. 20

  • "Hideous! As long as I live I shall never forget it. She said it was a disgrace to sit beside me."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 5, Ch. 33

  • "And they attack Anna. What for? Am I any better? I have, anyway, a husband I love--not as I would like to love him, still I do love him, while Anna never loved hers. How is she to blame? She wants to live. God has put that in our hearts. Very likely I should have done the same."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 6, Ch. 16

  • "The one thing, darling, is that I am so glad to have you!' said Anna, kissing her again. 'You haven't told me yet how and what you think about me, and I keep wanting to know. But I'm glad you will see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn't want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 6, Ch. 18

  • "And he set off for the elections without appealing to her for a candid explanation. It was the first time since the beginning of their intimacy that he had parted from her without a full explanation. From one point of view this troubled him, but on the other hand he felt that it was better so. 'At first there will be, as this time, something undefined kept back, and then she will get used to it. In any case, I can give up anything for her, but not my independence,' he thought."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 6, Ch. 25

  • "And though she felt sure that his love for her was waning, there was nothing she could do, she could not in any way alter her relations to him. Just as before, only by love and by charm could she keep him. And so, just as before, only by occupation in the day, by morphine at night, could she stifle the fearful thought of what would be if he ceased to love her."
    - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Book 6, Ch. 32

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