Mother

by Maxim Gorky

You must be on the watch with people; they all hate one another. They live in greed and envy; all are glad to do injury; people persecute out of sheer amusement. When you begin to accuse them and to judge them, they will hate you, and will hound you to destruction!”

I cannot understand it; but my heart turned softer when I recognised that there is truth in men, and that not all are to blame for their foulness and filth.”

“Oh, God! How many people there are in the world, and each one wails in his own way. Where, then, are those who feel rejoiced?”

Everyone, she knew, wants to fill his stomach today, and no one wants to put his dinner off even for a week, if he can eat it up at once. Not many would consent to travel the long and difficult road, and not all eyes could see at the end the promised kingdom where all men are brothers.

“When I was a youngster of ten years,” he recounted, “I wanted to catch the sun in a glass. So I took the glass, stole to the wall, and bang! I cut my hand and got a licking to boot. After the licking I went out in the yard and saw the sun in a puddle. So I started to trample the mud with my feet. I covered myself with mud, and got another drubbing. What was I to do? I screamed to the sun: ‘It doesn’t hurt me, you red devil; it doesn’t hurt me!’ and stuck out my tongue at him. And I felt comforted.”