Indeed, everything seemed to him [Prince Andrei] so futile
and insignificant in comparison with that solemn and sublime train of
thought which weakness, loss of blood, suffering, and the nearness of
death had induced in him. Looking into Napoleon’s eyes, Prince Andrei
thought of the insignificance of greatness, the unimportance of life,
which no one could understand, and of the still greater unimportance of
death, the meaning of which no living person could understand and explain…There
is nothing certain, nothing except the nothingness of everything that
is comprehensible to me, and the greatness of something incomprehensible
but all-important!" |