Anna Karenina

s, as he called them, which had during the period from his twentieth to his thirty-fourth year imperceptibly replaced his childish and youthful

nd the ideas associated with them were very well for intellectual purposes. But for life they yielded nothing, and Levin felt suddenly like a man who has changed his warm fur cloak for a musli

t, and still went on living as before, Levin had neve

not merely lack of knowledge, but that they were part of a whole or

hts. But of late, while he was staying in Moscow after his wife's confinement, with nothing to do, the qu

problems of my life, what answers do I accept?" And in the whole arsenal of his convictions, so far

f a man seeking food in

ry conversation, with every man he met, he was on the l

were perfectly satisfied and serene. So that, apart from the principal question, Levin was tortured by other questions too. Were these people sincere? he asked himself, or were they playing a part? or was it that the

day, and that it was now practically non-existent. All the people nearest to him who were good in their lives were believers. The old prince, and Lvov, whom he liked so much, and Sergey Ivanovitch, and all the wome

them, and that they gave no explanation of the questions which he felt he could not live without answering, but simply ignored their existence and attempt

e, an unbeliever, had fallen into praying, and at the moment he prayed, he believed. But that momen

He could not admit that he was mistaken then, for his spiritual condition then was precious to him, and to admit that it was a proof of weakness would have