The Master and Margarita

“I said that every kind of power is a form of violence against people and that there will come a time when neither the power of the Caesars, nor any other kind of power will exist. Man will enter the kingdom of truth and justice, where no such power will be necessary

And now tell me, why do you keep using the words ‘good people?’ Do you call everyone that?”

“Yes, everyone,” replied the prisoner. “There are no evil people in the world.”

“That is the first time I have heard

Yes, he is,” answered the prisoner, “but he’s an unhappy man. Ever since good people disfigured him, he’s been cruel and hard. I’m curious to know, who mutilated him

“I’m sorry,” replied the stranger in a soft voice, “but in order to be in control, you have to have a definite plan for at least a reasonable period of time.

But the suggestion that Kant be sent to Solovki not only failed to shock the foreigner, it positively delighted him

“Alas!” answered Berlioz regretfully, “all of those proofs are worthless, and mankind has long since consigned them to oblivion. Surely you would agree that reason dictates that there can be no proof of God’s existence.”

“In our country atheism comes as no surprise to anyone,” said Berlioz in a polite and diplomatic way. “The majority of our population made a conscious decision long ago not to believe the fairy tales about God.”

A hundred percent!” confirmed Bezdomny who loved pretentious, figurative expressions

even about the lesser known terrible god Uitzilopochtli who had once been venerated by the Aztecs in Mexico

Mikhail Alexandrovich also informed the poet, in passing, that the passage in Book 15, Chapter 44 of Tacitus’s famous Annals, where mention is made of Jesus’s execution, is nothing but a later, fraudulent interpolation