The Brothers Karamazov [Norton Critical Edition]

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naïve and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.

Avoid fear, too, though fear is only the consequence of every sort of falsehood.

?

He may suddenly, after hoarding impressions for many years, abandon everything and go off to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage for his soul's salvation, or perhaps he will suddenly set fire to his native village, and perhaps do both.

Ah, you casuist! He must have been with the Jesuits, somewhere, Ivan.

the stupider one is, the closer one is to reality. The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, [pg 259] while intelligence wriggles and hides itself. Intelligence is a knave, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.

One who does not believe in God will not believe in God's people. He who believes in God's people will see His Holiness too, even though he had not believed in it till then.

“What do you mean by isolation?” I asked him. “Why, the isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age—it has not fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For every one strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realization he ends by arriving at complete solitude.

They maintain that the world is getting more and more united, more and more bound together in brotherly community, as it overcomes distance and sets thoughts flying through the air.

Prescient notions of cyberspace?

What can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? They have succeeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.

The righteous man departs, but his light remains.

Fathers and teachers, I ponder, “What is hell?” I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Skotoprigonyevsk.”

!!

sum et nihil humanum a me alienum puto.”

Karamazov always lives in the present.

Like an animal

Do not try to scare us with your frenzied troikas from which all the nations stand aside in disgust. Not a runaway troika, but the stately chariot of Russia will move calmly and majestically to its goal. In your hands is the fate of my client, in your hands is the fate of Russian justice. You will defend it, you will save it, you will prove that there are men to watch over it, that it is in good hands!”