Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The queen who mended her stockings in prison,” he thought, “must have looked then every inch a queen and even more a queen than at sumptuous banquets and levées.”

The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.

No, life is only given to me once and I shall never have it again; I don’t want to wait for ‘the happiness of all.’ I want to live myself, or else better not live at all.

“and your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.

“Ah, don’t disdain life!” Porfiry went on. “You have a great deal of it still before you.

I know you don’t believe in it—but don’t be over-wise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid—the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.

Mere existence had always been too little for him; he had always wanted more.

Of course, in that case many of the benefactors of mankind who snatched power for themselves instead of inheriting it ought to have been punished at their first steps. But those men succeeded and so they were right, and I didn’t, and so I had no right to have taken that step.”