“Aye, men are like dogs, snapping at one another for a bone.” “No consolation, save when neighbour meets neighbour over a glass, and they take counsel, and make complaint; and if any has wronged or been wronged, he is forgiven and forgives!” “As even now, at this wedding-feast: but, ah! for one day only!” “Ah! To-morrow will come, though we call him not! You’ll not shun him, save in God’s hallowed Acre.... Yea, he will come and seize you, and lay on you his yoke, and smite you with the whip of poverty; and you, O man! must pull ... even till the yoke be bloodstained.” “What is’t aggravates our misery, setting men one against the other, like dogs quarrelling for a fleshless bone?” “Not poverty alone, but an Evil Power; and they then are blinded by him, discerning not good from evil.” “Truly so; and he bloweth upon our souls as one bloweth on half-quenched embers; and he causeth greed, malice, and all wickedness to burst out into flame!” “Yes; for he that is deaf to the commandments hath a quick ear for the music played in hell.” “It was otherwise of old days.—Then was there obedience, and respect for old men, and concord.” “And each man had land, as much as he could till; and pastures, and meadows, and the forest.” “Who in those days ever heard of taxes?” “Or was there anyone that purchased timber? He had but to drive to the wood and take all he needed, though it were the best pine or oak. The property of the Squire was the peasants’ property too.” “And now it belongs to neither, but to the Jews, or to men still worse.” “The foul carrion! (I have drunk to you: drink you to me!...) They are now established as on land of their own! (Your health, Brother!) ... To drink vodka is not a sin, if only at the proper season and with brothers: this is a wholesome thing, it cleanses the blood and drives away distempers.” “Who drinks at all, should drink one quart complete—likewise, who makes merry, should do it all Sunday long.—But have you work to do? Man, do it with all your might, grudge not your force, but put forth all your strength. And if ill things come to pass—if your wife be taken, if your cattle die, or your home burn down—why, ’tis the will of God. Do not rebel: what will it avail you to lament, poor creature as you are? Be patient, therefore; trust in God’s mercy. Aye, and if the worst should hap, and should grim Crossbones stare you in the face and clutch your throat, attempt not to escape, which is more than you can do; all is in the hand of God!” “Verily, who is to know the day when the Lord shall declare: ‘Thus far, O man, is thine: what is beyond is mine?’” “It is so of a truth. As lightning flashes, so are the decrees of God: and none, be he a priest, be he a sage, can know them till they fall, as ripe corn falls out of the ear.”