Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dear friend, tender and magnanimous creation which I divined! Perhaps you dream of giving me so much love and pouring out on to me so much that is beautiful from your beautiful soul that you hope thereby to establish some goal for me at last? No, it’s best for you to be cautious: my love will be as shallow as I am myself, and you will be unhappy. Your brother told me that he who loses ties with his earth, also loses his gods, that is, all his goals. One can argue endlessly about everything, but from me only negativity has poured forth, without any magnanimity and without any strength. Not even negativity has poured forth from me. Everything is always shallow and flaccid. The magnanimous Kirillov couldn’t tolerate the idea and he shot himself; but I really do see that he was magnanimous because he was not in his right mind. I will never lose my mind and will never believe an idea to the same extent as he did. I can’t even devote myself to an idea to that extent. Never, never shall I shoot myself!