Yevgeny Zamyatin

“ You are absolutely unable to think abstractly. Forgive me the word, but this I call bluntness of mind.”
“You? . . . to the spies? How ugly! And I went to the Botanical Garden and brought you a branch of lily of the valley . . .”
“Why ‘and I’? Why this ‘and’? Just like a woman!”
Angrily (this I must confess) , I snatched the flowers. “Here they are, your lilies of the valley. Well, smell them! Good? Yes? Why not use a little bit of logic? The lilies of the valley smell good; all right! But you cannot say about an odor, about the conception of an odor, that it is good or bad, can you? ”

“ This occupation always calms and purifies our thoughts. O- sat over her notebook, her head slightly inclined to the left; she was so assiduous that she poked out her left cheek with the tongue from within. She looked so childlike, so charming. . . . I felt everything in me was pleasant, precise, and simple.
She left. I remained alone. I breathed deeply two times (it is very good exercise before retiring for the night) . Suddenly—an unexpected odor reminiscent of something very disagreeable! I soon found out what was the matter: a branch of lily of the valley was hidden in my bed. ”

“ It is remarkable how persistent human criminal instincts are! I use deliberately the word “criminal,” for freedom and crime are as closely related as—well, as the movement of an aero and its speed: if the speed of an aero equals zero, the aero is motionless; if human liberty is equal to zero, man does not commit any crime. ”