Nikolai Gogol

[Are not] you too, Russia, speeding along like a spirited troika that nothing can overtake? . . . Everything on earth is flying past, and looking askance, other nations and states draw aside and make way.

Gambling is the great leveller. All men are equal— at cards.

A land that does not like doing things by halves.

It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.