Page 1713 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 12

Levin strode along the highroad, absorbed not so much
in his thoughts (he could not yet disentangle them) as in
his spiritual condition, unlike anything he had experienced
before.
The words uttered by the peasant had acted on his soul
like an electric shock, suddenly transforming and
combining into a single whole the whole swarm of
disjointed, impotent, separate thoughts that incessantly
occupied his mind. These thoughts had unconsciously
been in his mind even when he was talking about the
land.
He was aware of something new in his soul, and
joyfully tested this new thing, not yet knowing what it
was.
‘Not living for his own wants, but for God? For what
God? And could one say anything more senseless than
what he said? He said that one must not live for one’s own
wants, that is, that one must not live for what we
understand, what we are attracted by, what we desire, but
must live for something incomprehensible, for God,
whom no one can understand nor even define. What of it?

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