Each man lives for himself, uses his freedom to achieve his personal goals, and feels with his whole being that right now he can or cannot do such-and-such an action; but as soon as he does it, this action, committed at a certain moment in time, becomes irreversible, and makes itself the property of history, in which is has not a free but a predestined significance.

War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (ed. Vintage, 2011) - ISBN: 9780307806581