Why are you at war with yourself? I want things that I do not want to want. Please leave me But why shouldn't you have what you want?

Now I will never let go of you in my heart, Josif thought. I will love you forever, he thought. I am lying, he thought, and this time he was right

He was growing up. Soon he would be a man. He wondered what that would mean. Surely he could not have more required of him as an adult that had been required o…

She thinks it's all better now, Josif thought bitterly. She thinks she's kept me. She would have kept me better if she had let me go now.

Desire was only another weapon, like hunger, loneliness, and cold arrayed against him by his tormentors

Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

The real enemy is not outside, but inside. ... External enemies are not permanent; if you respect him, the enemy will become your friend. But there is one enem…