Great Throughts Treasury

"Believe to the end, even if all men went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness."

"Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it."

"Besides, they have put too high a price on harmony; we can’t afford to pay so much for admission. And therefore I hasten to return my ticket. And it is my duty, if only as an honest man, to return it as far ahead of time as possible. Which is what I am doing. It’s not that I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I just most respectfully return him the ticket."

"Between us we have established relationships somewhat strange, that in many ways incomprehensible me if I take into account their pride and haughtiness showing everyone. He knows, for example, that I love dearly."

"Bitter is the ascent of Golgotha."

"Bow or not? Call back or not? Recognize him or not?" our hero wondered in indescribable anguish, "or pretend that I am not myself, but somebody else strikingly like me, and look as though nothing were the matter. Simply not I, not I—and that's all," said Mr. Golyadkin, taking off his hat to Andrey Filippovitch and keeping his eyes fixed upon him. "I'm . . . I'm all right," he whispered with an effort; "I'm . . . quite all right. It's not I, it's not I—and that is the fact of the matter."

"Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself."

"Brother, I’m not depressed and haven’t lost spirit. Life everywhere is life, life is in ourselves and not in the external. There will be people near me, and to be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter – this is what life is, herein lies its task."

"Brother, these last two months I've found in myself a new man. A new man has risen up in me. He was hidden in me, but would never have come to the surface, if it hadn't been for this blow from heaven. I am afraid! And what do I care if I spend twenty years in the mines, breaking ore with a hammer? I am not a bit afraid of that- it's something else I am afraid of now: that that new man may leave me. Even there, in the mines, underground, I may find a human heart in another convict and murderer by my side, and I may make friends with him, for even there one may live and love and suffer. One may thaw and revive a frozen heart in that convict, one may wait upon him for years, and at last bring up from the dark depths a lofty soul, a feeling, suffering creature; one may bring forth an angel, create a hero! There are so many of them, hundreds of them, and we are all to blame for them."

"Brothers, do not be afraid of human sins, like a man in his sin, for when a man who loves the sinner, that's a picture of the Divine love and the culmination of love on earth. Love all God's creation and the whole and every bit. Every slip, every ray of God's love. You love animals, love plants, love everything. If you would like everything - and the secret will of God to understand things. And perhaps once you realize it, you're going after tirelessly begin to know further and more every day. I'll love, at last, the whole world and universe vascelom love. Animals love: God has given them the germ of thought and quiet joy. Do they distort and disturb, do not bother them, they do not take joy, not against the thought of God. Boy, do not boast, do not think you're better than animals, that they are sinless, and you, with your majesty, you just gnojiš country with his appearance on her trail after leaving his purulent themselves - and, alas, almost every, each between us! Children especially love, because they are sinless like the angels and live to us happiness and joy, and she lived for the sake of cleansing our hearts as a sign for us. Woe to him who insults a child."

"But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that along with happiness, in the exact same way, in perfectly equal proportion, man also needs unhappiness"

"But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that if you have the guillotine in the forefront, and with such glee, it's for the sole reason that cutting heads off is the easiest thing, and having an idea is difficult!"

"But even to him I used to go only when such a spell came, and my dreams had reached such happiness that I needed, instantly and infallibly, to embrace people and the whole of mankind - for which I had to have available at least one really existing person. Anton Antonych, however, could be visited only on Tuesdays (his day), and consequently my need to embrace the whole of mankind always had to be adjusted to a Tuesday."

"But gamblers know how a man can sit for almost twenty-four hours at cards, without looking to right, or to left."

"But gentlemen, what sort of free choice will there be when it comes down to tables and arithmetic, when all that’s left is two times two makes four? Two times two makes four even without my will. Is that what you call free choice?"

"But how could you live and have no story to tell?"

"But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt."

"But I am talking too much. That's why I'm not doing anything that chatter. Perhaps, however, and so: because chatter that I do nothing."

"But I ask again, are there many like Thee? And could thou believe for one moment that men, too, could face such a temptation? Is the nature of men such, that they can reject miracles and at the great moments of their life, the moments of their deepest, most agonizing spiritual difficulties, cling only to the free verdict of their heart? ... and thou didst hope that man, following Thee, would cling to god and not ask for a miracle."

"But I repeat, for the time cent that there is one case, only one, wants the human desire aware deliberately in harm him, and as he was foolish particular - because, simply, he wants to have the right to wish for himself even when it is foolish too would want as is reasonable While it is imposed on it."

"But I tell you what it is; an honest and sensitive man is open; and a business man 'listens and goes on eating' you up."

"But I'll add though that there is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps, the most important of your ideas."

"But I'm telling you that a hundred times, people deliberately, consciously malicious, frivolous, or even a desire he felt extremely stupid situation, there is a case only.: Alone but also reasonable to ask for things, no matter how absurd right to request has."

"But instead of delight his soul was filled with such gloom, and his heart ached with such anguish, as he had never known in his life before... "I am base" he whispered to himself."

"But it is possible, it is possible: the old grief, by a great mystery of human life, gradually passes into quiet, tender joy; instead of young, ebullient blood comes a mild, serene old age: I bless the sun's rising each day and my heart sings to it as before, but now I love its setting even more, its long slanting rays, and with them quiet, mild, tender memories, dear images from the whole of a long and blessed life--and overall is God's truth, moving, reconciling, all-forgiving!"

"But it's precisely in this cold, loathsome half-despair, half-belief, in this deliberate burying of yourself underground for forty years out of sheer pain, in this assiduously constructed, and yet somewhat dubious hopelessness, in all this poision of unfulfilled desires turned inward, this fever of vacillations, of resolutions adopted for eternity, and of repentances a moment later that you find the very essence of that strange, sharp pleasure."

"But man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic."

"But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and perhaps, like a chess-player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself."

"But man is so addicted to systems and to abstract conclusions that he is prepared deliberately to distort the truth, to close his eyes and ears, but justify his logic at all cost."

"But man is so partial to systems and abstract conclusions that he is ready intentionally to distort the truth, to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, only so as to justify his logic."

"But man is so partial to systems and abstract conclusions that he is ready to distort the truth, ready to hear nor see anything, as long as he can justify his logic."

"But man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it. For these pitiful creatures are concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to find community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity from the beginning of time. For the sake of common worship they've slain each other with the sword. They have set up gods and challenged one another, "Put away your gods and come and worship ours, or we will kill you and your gods!"

"But now I will say, that thou mayest know that you're leaving, what man you separate yourself. Do you know how at first I understood you? The passion took me like fire, it has seeped into my blood like poison and troubled all my thoughts, all my feelings. I was intoxicated. I was as stunned, and your pure, merciful love, I said no as equals, not as if I was worthy of your love, but without understanding or feeling. I did not understand you. I answered you as the woman who, in my view, is to forget me and not the one who wanted me to raise it up. Do you know what I suspected you , that meant to me to forget ? But no, I do not offend you by my confession. I will tell you only that you are deeply deceived you about me! Never ever, I could not raise myself up to you. I could only gaze in your boundless love, once I had you understood you. But it does not erase my fault. My passion raised by you was not love. Love, I do not fear. I did not dare to love. In love there is reciprocity, equality, and I was unworthy. I did not know what was in me!"

"But now, all of a sudden, there appeared before me the absurd, loathsomely spiderish notion of debauchery, which, without love, crudely and shamelessly begins straight off with that which is the crown of true love."

"But people will laugh at all sorts of things."

"But profound as psychology is, it's a knife that cuts both ways... I have purposely resorted to this method, gentlemen of the jury, to show that you can prove anything by it. It all depends on who makes use of it. Psychology lures even most serious people into romancing, and quite unconsciously. I am speaking of the abuse of psychology, gentlemen."

"But something mysterious was maturing in his soul ... Yes, the old man was right: they felt outraged, his wound could not heal and they purposely tried to revive his wound with this mystery with this distrust of all of us. Seemed to revel in their pain, this suffering selfish, if one may so express it. This cultivation and enjoyment of pain was understandable to me. It was the pleasure of many offended, outraged, oppressed by fate and conscious of the injustice of it."

"But the church, like a tender, loving mother holds aloof from active punishment herself, as the sinner is too severely punished already by the civil law, and there must be at least someone to have pity on him. The church holds aloof, above all, because its judgment alone contains the truth..."

"But the reason why he wants sometimes to go off at a tangent may just be that he is predestined to make the road, and perhaps, too, that however stupid the direct practical man may be, the though..."

"But there is... though a bit, a few special people: the believers in God and Christians, and at the same time and the Socialists. Here are these that we most fear is a terrible people! Socialist-Christian-atheist socialist worse."

"But this I can say for certain: though I did that cruel thing purposely, it was not an impulse from the heart, but came from my evil brain. This cruelty was so affected, so purposely made up, so completely a product of the brain, of books, that I could not even keep it up a minute--first I dashed away to avoid seeing her, and then in shame and despair rushed after Liza."

"But to fall in love does not mean to love. One can fall in love and still hate."

"But to judge some people impartially we must renounce certain preconceived opinions and our habitual attitude to the ordinary people about us."

"But try getting blindly carried away by your feelings, without reasoning, without a primary cause, driving consciousness away at least for a time; start hating, or fall in love, only so as not to sit with folded arms."

"But twice-two-makes-four is for all that a most insupportable thing. Twice-two-makes-four is, in my humble opinion, nothing but a piece of impudence. Twice-two-makes-four is a farcical, dressed-up fellow who stands across your path with arms akimbo and spits at you."

"But what are years, what are months! he would exclaim. Why count the days, when even one day is enough for man to know all happiness."

"But what can a decent man speak of with most pleasure? Answer: Of himself. Well, so I will talk about myself."

"But what do we have here? First of all, my beauty, my dearest madam, you won't get away with it, you'll be pursued, and then trumped into a convent. And then what, lady mine? Then what would you have me do? Would you have me follow some stupid novels, lady mine, and go to a neighboring hill, and dissolve in tears gazing at the cold walls of your confinement, and finally die, following the custom of certain bad German poets and novelists, is that it, my lady? Then, first of all, allow me to tell you in a friendly way that that is not how things are done, and, second, I'd have you and your parents soundly thrashed for giving you French books to read; for French books don't teach anything good. There's poison in them... noxious poison, lady mine! Or do you think, if I may be permitted to ask, do you think that, say, thus and so, we'll run away with impunity, and sort of...there'll be a cabin on the seashore for you and we'll start cooing and discussing various feelings; and spend our whole life like that, in prosperity and happiness; and then there'll be a youngling, so that we'll sort of... say, thus and so, our parent and state councilor, Olsufy Ivanovich, here, say, a youngling has come along, so on this good occasion why don't your life your curse and bless the couple? No, my lady, again that's not how things are done, and the first thing is that there'll be no cooing, kindly don't expect it. Nowadays, lady mine, a husband is the master, and a good and well-behaved wife must oblige him in everything. And gentilities, my lady, are not in favor nowadays, in our industrial age; say, the time of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is past. Nowadays a husband comes home from work hungry--isn't there a bit to eat, darling, he says, a glass of vodka, some pickled herring? So you, my lady, have to have vodka and herring ready at once. The husband relishes his snack and doesn't even glance at you, but says: off to the kitchen, my little kitten, and see to dinner--and he kisses you maybe once a week and even that indifferently...There's how we do it, lady mine! and even that, say, indifferently!...That's how it will be, if we start reasoning like this, if it's already gone so far that you begin looking at things this way... And what has it to do with me? Why, my lady, have you mixed me up in your caprices? 'A beneficent man, say, suffering for my sake, and in all ways dear to my heart, and so on.' First of all, lady mine, I'm not right for you, you know that yourself, I'm no expert at paying compliments, I don't like uttering all those perfumed trifles for ladies, I'm not in favor of philanderers, and, I confess, my looks are not very winning. You won't find any false boasting or shame in us, and we are confessing to you now in all sincerity. Say, so there, what we have is a direct and open character and common sense; we don't get involved in intrigues. I am not an intriguer, and I'm proud of it--so there! I go among good people without a mask, and to tell you all."

"But when he know that he is not only worse than all those in the world, but is also guilty before all people, on behalf of all and for all, for all human sins, the world's and each person's, only then will the goal of our unity be achieved."

"But yet I am firmly persuaded that a great deal of consciousness, every sort of consciousness, in fact, is a disease."