Leo Tolstoy

“ Some Cossacks rushed out of the hut and could not refrain from shouting, re-echoing the refrain of Daddy Eroshka's song and his shots.
'Why are you not at the betrothal?' asked Olenin.
'Never mind them! Never mind them!' muttered the old man, who had evidently been offended by something there. 'Don't like them, I don't. Oh, those people! Come back into the hut! Let them make merry by themselves and we'll make merry by ourselves.'
Olenin went in. ”

“ The one way to be happy is to love, to love self-denyingly, to love everybody and everything; to spread a web of love on all sides and to take all who come into it. In this way I caught Vanyusha, Daddy Eroshka, Lukashka, and Maryanka.'
As Olenin was finishing this sentence Daddy Eroshka entered the room. ”

“ And he tried to mimic Olenin by tapping the floor with his thick fingers, and then twisted his big face to express contempt.
'What's the good of writing quibbles. Better have a spree and show you're a man!'
No other conception of writing found place in his head except that of legal chicanery.
Olenin burst out laughing and so did Eroshka. Then, jumping up from the floor, the latter began to show off his skill on the balalayka and to sing Tartar songs.
'Why write, my good fellow! You'd better listen to what I'll sing to you. When you're dead you won't hear any more songs. ”