Book 1 Chapter 59 Nekhludoffs Third Interview with Maslova in Prison

One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has
his own special, definite qualities; that a man is kind, cruel,
wise, stupid, energetic, apathetic, etc. Men are not like that.
We may say of a man that he is more often kind than cruel,
oftener wise than stupid, oftener energetic than apathetic, or
the reverse; but it would be false to say of one man that he is
kind and wise, of another that he is wicked and foolish. And yet
we always classify mankind in this way. And this is untrue. Men
are like rivers: the water is the same in each, and alike in all;
but every river is narrow here, is more rapid there, here slower,
there broader, now clear, now cold, now dull, now warm. It is the
same with men. Every man carries in himself the germs of every
human quality, and sometimes one manifests itself, sometimes
another, and the man often becomes unlike himself, while still
remaining the same man, In some people these changes are very
rapid, and Nekhludoff was such a man. These changes in him were
due to physical and to spiritual causes. At this time he
experienced such a change.

That feeling of triumph and joy at the renewal of life which he
had experienced after the trial and after the first interview
with Katusha, vanished completely, and after the last interview
fear and revulsion took the place of that joy. He was determined
not to leave her, and not to change his decision of marrying her,
if she wished it; but it seemed very hard, and made him suffer.