The Lady with the Little Dog

“And he judged of others by himself, not believing in what he saw, and always believing that every man had his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy and under the cover of night. All personal life rested on secrecy, and possibly it was partly on that account that civilised man was so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected.”

“Gurov thought how in reality everything is beautiful in this world when one reflects: everything except what we think or do ourselves when we forget our human dignity and the higher aims of our existence.”

“At home in Moscow everything was in its winter routine; the stoves were heated, and in the morning it was still dark when the children were having breakfast and getting ready for school, and the nurse would light the lamp for a short time. The frosts had begun already. When the first snow has fallen, on the first day of sledge-driving it is pleasant to see the white earth, the white roofs, to draw soft, delicious breath, and the season brings back the days of one's youth. The old limes and birches, white with hoar-frost, have a good-natured expression; they are nearer to one's heart than cypresses and palms, and near them one doesn't want to be thinking of the sea and the mountains.”

“Experience often repeated, truly bitter experience, had taught him long ago that with decent people, especially Moscow people -- always slow to move and irresolute -- every intimacy, which at first so agreeably diversifies life and appears a light and charming adventure, inevitably grows into a regular problem of extreme intricacy, and in the long run the situation becomes unbearable. But at every fresh meeting with an interesting woman this experience seemed to slip out of his memory, and he was eager for life, and everything seemed simple and amusing.”

“There was anything else, but not love.”

“Gúrov reflexionaba que en realidad, si se para uno a pensarlo, todo es bello en este mundo, salvo lo que nosotros mismos discurrimos y hacemos cuando olvidamos los fines supremos de la existencia y nuestra dignidad humana.”

“essentially, if you thought of it, everything was beautiful in this world, everything except for what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher goals of being and our human dignity.”

“Toda existencia personal descansa en el secreto; quizá a ello se deba en parte que los hombres cultivados se preocupen tanto de que se respeten los secretos personales.”

“Anna Sergeevna e lui si amavano come due esseri molto vicini, affini, come marito e moglie, come se il destino li avesse destinati l'uno all'altra e non capivano perché li aveva fatti sposare con altri; erano come due uccelli migratori, maschio e femmina, catturati insieme e messi in due gabbie separate.”

“Pasearon y comentaron la extraña luminosidad del mar; el agua tenía una tonalidad lila, delicada y cálida, y la luna dibujaba sobre ella una banda dorada.”