Xinyu Tan’s Reviews > The Brothers Karamazov > Status Update

The elder stepped toward Dmitri Fyodorovich and, having come close to him, knelt before him. Alyosha thought for a moment that he had fallen from weaknesses, but it was something else. Kneeling in front of Dmitri Fyodorovich, the elder bowed down at his feet with a full, distinct, conscious bow, and even touched the floor with his forehead. . . A weak smile barely glimmered on his lips.

Claude articulated so well on my general observations and feelings: " the parts written from faith feel true but can't be fully articulated, and the parts written from doubt are razor sharp. That asymmetry isn't going away. It might be the permanent human condition."

Perhaps rationality has limits: “Ways which can be spoken of are not the eternal way. Names which can be spoken are not eternal names.”

"If it were not for Christ's Church, indeed there would be no constraint on the criminal in his evildoing, and no punishment for it later, real punishment, that is, not a mechanical one such as has just been mentioned, which only chafes the heart in most cases, but a real punishment, the only real, the only frightening and appeasing punishment, which lies in the acknowledgement of one's own conscience."

Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself... And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.

...for active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with everyone watching. Indeed, it will go as far as the giving even of one's life, provided it does not take long but soon is over, as on stage, and everyone is looking on and praising. Whereas active lover is labor and perseverance, and for some people...a whole science.

"But I am amazed at myself: the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular... In my dreams," he said, "I often went so far as to think passionately of serving mankind... and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone even for two days... As soon as someone is there, close to me, his personality oppresses my freedom and restricts my freedom."

Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern 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.

While within the spheres of life, which not only has its rights, but itself imposes great obligations - within its sphere, if we wish to be humane, to be Christians finally, it is our duty and obligation to foster only those convictions that are justified by reason and experience, that have passed through the crucible analysis, in a word, to act sensibly and not senselessly as in dreams or delirium, ...

"The point was not the money, but that by means of this very money his happiness was being shattered with such loathsome cynicism." - at this point, the whole book reminds me an ethics book I read - like the trolley dilemma, Dostoyevsky constructed a moral dilemma that challenges the extreme sides within each one of us: passion and reason, good and evil, brightheartedness and cynicism, ...

In contrast to the “Europeanism” and the “popular foundations” of his brothers, he (Dimitri) seems to represent ingenuous Russia — oh, not all, not all, and God forbid it should be all! ... Oh, we are ingenuous, we are an amazing mixture of good and evil, we are lovers of enlightenment and Schiller, and at the same time we rage in taverns and tear out the beards of little drunkards, our tavern mates.