Ivan Ilyich's life was most simple, and most ordinary, and therefore most terrible.
Without knowing why I am and why I am here, life is impossible.
The more everybody lives, the more life reveals to him; what was unknown becomes known.
There was no answer except the usual answer life gives to the most complicated and insoluble questions. This answer is: carry on with your everyday affairs, that is to say, put it out of your mind.
Moral perfection is beyond reach but this is the law of human life
If there is no higher reason--and there is none--then my own reason must be the supreme judge of my life
The poet takes the best things out of his life and puts them into his work. Hence his work is beautiful and his life bad.