The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie.

for active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams.

Here is a commandment for you: seek happiness in sorrow. Work, work tirelessly.

“that the science of this world, having united itself into a great force, has, especially in the past century, examined everything heavenly that has been bequeathed to us in sacred books, and, after hard analysis, the learned ones of this world have absolutely nothing left of what was once holy. But they have examined parts and missed the whole, and their blindness is even worthy of wonder. Meanwhile the whole stands before their eyes as immovably as ever, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

“Viper will eat viper,”

Stupidity is brief and guileless, while reason hedges and hides. Reason is a scoundrel, stupidity is direct and honest.

It’s not that I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I just most respectfully return him the ticket.”

Believe what the heart tells you, For heaven offers no pledge.6 Only faith in what the heart tells you!

“Better that you enslave us, but feed us.” They will finally understand that freedom and earthly bread in plenty for everyone are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share among themselves.

You desired the free love of man, that he should follow you freely, seduced and captivated by you. Instead of the firm ancient law,23 man had henceforth to decide for himself, with a free heart, what is good and what is evil, having only your image before him as a guide—but did it not occur to you that he would eventually reject and dispute even your image and your truth if he was oppressed by so terrible a burden as freedom of choice? They will finally cry out that the truth is not in you, for it was impossible to leave them in greater confusion and torment than you did, abandoning them to so many cares and insoluble problems. Thus you yourself laid the foundation for the destruction of your own kingdom, and do not blame anyone else for it.

There are three powers, only three powers on earth, capable of conquering and holding captive forever the conscience of these feeble rebels, for their own happiness—these powers are miracle, mystery, and authority.

you hoped that, following you, man, too, would remain with God, having no need of miracles. But you did not know that as soon as man rejects miracles, he will at once reject God as well, for man seeks not so much God as miracles.

You did not come down because, again, you did not want to enslave man by a miracle and thirsted for faith that is free, not miraculous.

As I told you: I just want to drag on until I’m thirty, and then—smash the cup on the floor!”

Life will bring you many misfortunes, but through them you will be happy, and you will bless life and cause others to bless it—which is the most important thing. That is how you are.

he suddenly seemed to have found new strength in himself, which sustained him through all this long conversation with his friends. It was as though a last loving effort sustained this incredible animation in him, but only for a short time,

“Well,” he said, “go now, play, live for me!” I walked out then and went to play. And later in life I remembered many times, with tears now, how he told me to live for him.

bless the sun’s rising each day and my heart sings to it as before, but now I love its setting even more, its long slanting rays, and with them quiet, mild, tender memories, dear images from the whole of a long and blessed life—

one must admit that fashion is indeed the great queen of society.

But what comes of this right to increase one’s needs? For the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; for the poor, envy and murder, for they have been given rights, but have not yet been shown any way of satisfying their needs.

They have succeeded in amassing more and more things, but have less and less joy.

Equality is only in man’s spiritual dignity, and only among us will that be understood.

it is dearly bought, by long work over a long time, for one ought to love not for a chance moment but for all time.

REMEMBER ESPECIALLY THAT you cannot be the judge of anyone.11 For there can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge knows that he, too, is a criminal, exactly the same as the one who stands before him, and that he is perhaps most guilty of all for the crime of the one standing before him.

you are able to take upon yourself the crime of the criminal who stands before you and whom you are judging in your heart, do so at once, and suffer for him yourself, and let him go without reproach.

And if, having received your kiss, he goes away unmoved and laughing at you, do not be tempted by that either: it means that his time has not yet come, but it will come in due course; and if it does not come, no matter:

Work tirelessly. If, as you are going to sleep at night, you remember: “I did not do what I ought to have done,” arise at once and do it.

And if there are two of you who come together thus, there is already a whole world, a world of living love; embrace each other in tenderness and give praise to the Lord: for his truth has been made full, if only in the two of you.

The righteous man departs, but his light remains. People are always saved after the death of him who saved them.

Know measure, know the time, learn these things.

He fell to the earth a weak youth and rose up a fighter, steadfast for the rest of his life, and he knew it and felt it suddenly, in that very moment of his ecstasy. Never,

like a great many men in such cases, he believed most of all in a change of place: if only it weren’t for these people, if only it weren’t for these circumstances, if only one could fly away from this cursed place—then everything would be reborn! That was what he believed in and what he longed for.

The answer was “sober, but won’t go away.”

I’m not good myself, gentlemen, that’s the thing, I’m not so beautiful myself, and therefore I had no right to consider him repulsive, that’s the thing. Perhaps you can write that down.”

Farewell, guiltless man, who have been your own ruin.”

So do not be like everyone else; even if you are the only one left who is not like that, still do not be like that.”

Ah, it’s she who has ruined everybody, but in fact I don’t know, they say she’s become a saint, though it’s a bit late.

I’m terribly fond of rumors, so I subscribed, and now I’ve been paid back for it,

“‘In order to resolve this question it is necessary, first of all, to put one’s person in conflict with one’s actuality.’ Do you understand that?” “No, I don’t,” said Alyosha. He was watching Mitya and listened to him with curiosity. “I don’t understand it either. Obscure and vague, but intelligent. ‘Everybody writes like that now,’ he says, ‘because it’s that sort of environment

accept death proudly and calmly, like a god. Out of pride he will understand that he should not murmur about life being momentary, and he will love his brother then without any reward. Love will satisfy only the moment of life, but the very awareness of its being momentary will increase its fire, inasmuch as previously it was diffused in hopes of an eternal love beyond the

But anyway I see that it is better not to apologize. I shall do what I can, and my readers will see for themselves that I have done all I could.

the second just as sincerely base. Why? Precisely because we are of a broad, Karamazovian nature—and this is what I am driving at—capable of containing all possible opposites and of contemplating both abysses at once, the abyss above us, an abyss of lofty ideals, and the abyss beneath us, an abyss of the lowest and foulest degradation.

No, gentlemen of the jury, they have their Hamlets, but so far we have only Karamazovs!”

You wanted to regenerate another man in yourself through suffering; I say just remember that other man always, all your life, and wherever you escape to—and that is enough for you.

must know that there is nothing higher, or stronger, or sounder, or more useful afterwards in life, than some good memory, especially a memory from childhood, from the parental home. You hear a lot said about your education, yet some such beautiful, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man stores up many such memories to take into life, then he is saved for his whole life. And even if only one good memory remains with us in our hearts, that alone may serve some day for our salvation.