The Brothers Karamazov Quotes

“In order to remake the world, it’s essential for men to proceed along a different psychological path. Until they really become each man’s brother, true brotherhood will not occur. Never, prompted by science or self-interest, never will people be able to share their property and privileges without offending each other. Each man will think that his own share is too small, and they will grumble, envy, and destroy one another. You ask when this will come to pass. It will, but first we have to experience a period of human isolation.” “What sort of isolation?” I asked him. “The kind that prevails everywhere now, especially in our age, but that still hasn’t ended or its time has not yet come. Because now each man tries to isolate himself more, wishing to experience life to the fullest; meanwhile, all his efforts result in achieving not the fullness of life, but complete suicide, because instead of fullness, he falls into total self-isolation. Because in our age all men have split up into units, each retreating into his own burrow, each one separating himself from others; he hides, conceals what he possesses, and ends up alienating himself from people and alienating others. He accumulates wealth in isolation and thinks: I’m so strong now and so secure; but the fool doesn’t realize that the more he acquires, the more he sinks into suicidal impotence. Because he has become accustomed to relying on himself alone, and cutting himself off from the whole, he’s taught his soul not to believe in help from others, in people, or in mankind; he merely trembles at the thought that he might lose his wealth and acquired privileges. Everywhere now human intellect is, ironically, beginning to ignore the fact that a person’s genuine security lies not in his individual, solitary efforts, but in the common solidarity of the people.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: A New Translation by Michael R. Katz