Obviously he did not care in the least what his reasoning led him to; all he wanted was the process of reasoning.

And he did not like it when the process of reasoning brought him into a blind alley.

That was the only thing he disliked, and avoided by changing the conversation to something agreeable and amusing.

All the impressions of the day, beginning with the impression made by the old peasant, which served, as it were, as the fundamental basis of all the conceptions and ideas of the day, threw Levin into violent excitement.