The Brothers Karamazov

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Of course, no one is bound by anything; he can also drop the book after two pages of the first story and never pick it up again.

In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we.

He could not bear to hear certain words and certain conversations about women.

would you believe it? Terribly stupid. You see, stupid as I am, I still keep thinking about it, I keep thinking,

This guy sounds like trump

I’m a natural-born buffoon, I am, reverend father, just like a holy fool;

And above all do not be so ashamed of yourself, for that is the cause of everything.”

man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself.

Lamentations ease the heart only by straining and exacerbating it more and more. Such grief does not even want consolation; it is nourished by the sense of its unquenchableness. Lamentations are simply the need to constantly irritate the wound.

“You speak, and it seems to pierce one right through. And yet happiness, happiness—where is it? Who can call himself happy?

the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular, that is, individually, as separate persons.