the best parts of anna karenin:

"standing in chruch at the first service, Levin tried to revive his youthful recollections of intense religious emotion he had experienced between the ages of sixteen and seventeen. but he was immediatly convinced that it was out of his power to do so. he attempted to look on it all as a meaningless, empty custom, like the custom of paying calls, but he felt he could not do that either. like the majority of his contemporaries, levin found himself in the vaguest position in regard to religion. believe it he could not, and at the same time he had no firm conviction that it was all untrue. and so, unable either to believe in the significance of what he was doing or to regard it with indifference as an empty formality, all the time preparing for the sacrament he was conscious of a feeling of discomfort and shame at taking part in something he did not understand, which was therfore, an inner voice told him, deceitful and wrong of him"

"he knew she was there by the joy and the terror that seized his heart. she was standing there talking to a lady at the opposite end of the rink. there was apparently nothing particularly striking either in her dress or her attitude; but for levin it was as easy to find her in that crowd as to see a rose among nettles. she made everything bright. she was the smile that shed light on all around her.'can i really step on to the ice and go up to her?' he wondered. the spot where she stood seemed to him unapproachable holy ground and there was one moment when he nearly turned away, so filled with awe was he. he had to make an effort and reason with himsel that all sorts of people were moving about her and that he too might come there just to skate. he walked down, for a long while averting his eyes from her, as though she were the sun, but seeing her, as one sees the sun, without looking."