Crime and Punishment Quotes

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

When reason fails, the devil helps!

We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is.

I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.

And the more I drink the more I feel it. That’s why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.... I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!

A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof.

The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.

Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare.

Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment-- as well as prison.

Truly great men must, I think, experience great sorrow on the earth.

You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won’t be wiser?

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

Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid - the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.

There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery.

Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.

In flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.

Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!

People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.

“They snapped words over our heads, and they made us put on the white shirts worn by persons condemned to death.

“His Majesty had spared us our lives.”

“It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of.”

“But I am talking too much. It’s because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.”

With my rags I ought to wear a cap, any sort of old pancake, but not this grotesque thing.

“If I am so scared now, what would it be if it somehow came to pass that I were really going to do it?”

“It’s in the houses of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness,”

“What filthy things my heart is capable of. Yes, filthy above all, disgusting, loathsome!—and for a whole month I’ve been....”

“All that’s nonsense,” he said hopefully, “and there is nothing in it all to worry about! It’s simply physical derangement. Just a glass of beer, a piece of dry bread—and in one moment the brain is stronger, the mind is clearer and the will is firm! Phew, how utterly petty it all is!”

“Just what I thought! I’m a man of experience, immense experience, sir,”

“Does not my heart ache to think what a useless worm I am?”

“Hopelessly in the fullest sense, when you know beforehand that you will get nothing by it.

You know, for instance, beforehand with positive certainty that this man, this most reputable and exemplary citizen, will on no consideration give you money; and indeed I ask you why should he? For he knows of course that I shan’nt pay it back.

“Well, when one has no one, nowhere else one can go! For every man must have somewhere to go. Since there are times when one absolutely must go somewhere!

Excuse me, young man, can you.... No, to put it more strongly and more distinctly; not can you but dare you, looking upon me, assert that I am not a pig?

Granted, granted, I am a scoundrel, but she is a woman of a noble heart, full of sentiments, refined by education.

Honoured sir, honoured sir, you know every man ought to have at least one place where people feel for him!

She had not any dresses... none at all, but she got herself up as though she were going on a visit; and not that she’d anything to do it with, she smartened herself up with nothing at all, she’ d done her hair nicely, put on a clean collar of some sort, cuffs, and there she was, quite a different person, she was younger and better looking.

“Not on earth, but up yonder... they grieve over men, they weep, but they don’ blame them, they don’ blame them!”

And He will say, ‘Come to me! I have already forgiven thee once.... I have forgiven thee once.... Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee for thou hast loved much....’

And He will say unto us, ‘Ye are swine, made in the Image of the Beast and with his mark; but come ye also!’

“What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind—then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it’s all as it should be.”

But why, if you are so clever, do you lie here like a sack and have nothing to show for it?

Do you still say your prayers, Rodya, and believe in the mercy of our Creator and our Redeemer?

Remember, dear boy, how in your childhood, when your father was living, you used to lisp your prayers at my knee, and how happy we all were in those days.

Was it all put into words, or did both understand that they had the same thing at heart and in their minds, so that there was no need to speak of it aloud, and better not to speak of it.

‘You are our one comfort, you are everything to us.’

“It needs time and care to get to know a man,”

“What really matters is not the stinginess, is not the meanness, but the tone of the whole thing.”

“That’s how it always is with these Schilleresque noble hearts; till the last moment every goose is a swan with them, till the last moment, they hope for the best and will see nothing wrong, and although they have an inkling of the other side of the picture, yet they won’t face the truth till they are forced to;”

For one she loves, for one she adores, she will sell herself!

Let my life go, if only my dear ones may be happy!

So he tortured himself, fretting himself with such questions, and finding a kind of enjoyment in it.

“looking like ladies and refined”

“Oh shameful wretches, they won’t let me alone!”

“They are drunken and foolish, they are in fun; come away, don’t look!”

“What are you about, are you a Christian, you devil?” shouted an old man in the crowd.

“He put his arms round his father but he felt choked, choked.”

“Good God!” he cried, “can it be, can it be, that I shall really take an axe, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open... that I shall tread in the sticky warm blood, break the lock, steal and tremble; hide, all spattered in the blood... with the axe.... Good God, can it be?”

“I knew that I could never bring myself to it, so what have I been torturing myself for till now?”

“Lord, show me my path—I renounce that accursed... dream of mine.”

“But what help can he be to me now? Suppose he gets me lessons, suppose he shares his last farthing with me, if he has any farthings, so that I could get some boots and make myself tidy enough to give lessons... hm...

“Don’t you mind her, mates, bring a whip each of you, get ready!”

“You can always get money from her. She is as rich as a Jew, she can give you five thousand roubles at a time and she is not above taking a pledge for a rouble. Lots of our fellows have had dealings with her. But she is an awful old harpy....”

“Yes, she is so dark-skinned and looks like a soldier dressed up, but you know she is not at all hideous. She has such a good-natured face and eyes. Strikingly so. And the proof of it is that lots of people are attracted by her. She is such a soft, gentle creature, ready to put up with anything, always willing, willing to do anything. And her smile is really very sweet.”

“I was joking of course, but look here; on one side we have a stupid, senseless, worthless, spiteful, ailing, horrid old woman, not simply useless but doing actual mischief, who has not an idea what she is living for herself, and who will die in a day or two in any case. You understand? You understand?”

“Why are you lying like a log?” she shouted, looking at him with repulsion.

“It’s red, and on red blood will be less noticeable,”

“I’m studying the law you see! It’s evident, e-vi-dent there’s something wrong here!”

“Should he slip through some gateway and wait somewhere in an unknown street? No, hopeless! Should he fling away the axe? Should he take a cab? Hopeless, hopeless!”

“So my reason has not quite deserted me, so I still have some sense and memory, since I guessed it of myself,”

For whole days together he’s snoring here like a dog! A dog he is too. Open I tell you. It’s past ten.

“He’s taken to bolting himself in! As if he were worth stealing! Open, you stupid, wake up!”

“If I’m lost, I am lost, I don’t care! Shall I put the sock on?”

“Some foolishness, some trifling carelessness, and I may betray myself! Hm... it’s a pity there’s no air here,” he added, “it’s stifling.... It makes one’s head dizzier than ever... and one’s mind too...”

“What do you want?” he shouted, apparently astonished that such a ragged fellow was not annihilated by the majesty of his glance.

“Be silent! You are in a government office. Don’t be impudent, sir!”

“But he came quite tipsy, and asked for three bottles again, and then he lifted up one leg, and began playing the pianoforte with one foot, and that is not at all right in an honourable house, and he ganz broke the piano, and it was very bad manners indeed and I said so.”

“The idea of squealing like a little pig at the window into the street! Fie upon him!”

“I am a poor student, sick and shattered by poverty.”

“Fling them into the canal, and all traces hidden in the water, the thing would be at an end.”

“I have buried my tracks! And who, who can think of looking under that stone? It has been lying there most likely ever since the house was built, and will lie as many years more. And if it were found, who would think of me? It is all over! No clue!”

“It is because I am very ill,” he decided grimly at last, “I have been worrying and fretting myself, and I don’t know what I am doing.... Yesterday and the day before yesterday and all this time I have been worrying myself.... I shall get well and I shall not worry.... But what if I don’t get well at all? Good God, how sick I am of it all!”

Very interesting to know, though; have I come on purpose or have I simply walked here by chance?

“Stop, stop! You queer fish.”

“Well, then, I came to you because I know no one but you who could help... to begin... because you are kinder than anyone—cleverer, I mean, and can judge... and now I see that I want nothing. Do you hear? Nothing at all... no one’s services... no one’s sympathy. I am by myself... alone. Come, that’s enough. Leave me alone.”

And please don’t think I am doing you a service; quite the contrary, as soon as you came in, I saw how you could help me; to begin with, I am weak in spelling, and secondly, I am sometimes utterly adrift in German, so that I make it up as I go along for the most part. The only comfort is, that it’s bound to be a change for the better. Though who can tell, maybe it’s sometimes for the worse. Will you take it?”

“Take it, my good man, in Christ’s name.”

“You’ve eaten nothing since yesterday, I warrant. You’ve been trudging about all day, and you’re shaking with fever.”

“I am always knocking my head. You call this a lodging!

When you decamped in that rascally way without leaving your address, I felt so angry that I resolved to find you out and punish you.

And that promise of marriage when her daughter, Natalya Yegorovna, was alive?.. I know all about it! But I see that’s a delicate matter and I am an ass; forgive me.

But, talking of foolishness, do you know Praskovya Pavlovna is not nearly so foolish as you would think at first sight?”

“But she is not very clever either, eh? She is essentially, essentially an unaccountable character!

“But I swear I judge her intellectually, simply from the metaphysical point of view; there is a sort of symbolism sprung up between us, a sort of algebra or what not! I don’t understand it!”

“It was base of me to say that.... My mother herself is almost a beggar... and I told a lie to keep my lodging... and be fed,”

“I see, brother,” he said a moment later, “that I have been playing the fool again. I thought I should amuse you with my chatter, and I believe I have only made you cross.”

“What does it mean? Am I still in delirium, or is it real? I believe it is real.... Ah, I remember; I must escape! Make haste to escape. Yes, I must, I must escape! Yes... but where? And where are my clothes? I’ve no boots. They’ve taken them away! They’ve hidden them! I understand!”

“They think I am ill! They don’t know that I can walk, ha-ah-a! I could see by their eyes that they know all about it!”

“he has forgotten. I fancied then that you were not quite yourself. Now you are better for your sleep.... You really look much better. First-rate! Well, to business. Look here, my dear boy.”

“I did not go empty- handed— they took the size from this monster. We all did our best.”

“And now, brother, let me change your linen, for I daresay you will throw off your illness with your shirt.”

“Oh, you particular gentleman! Principles! You are worked by principles, as it were by springs; you won’t venture to turn round on your own account. If a man is a nice fellow, that’s the only principle I go upon. Zametov is a delightful person.”

“And I wouldn’t give more than one for you. No more of your jokes! Zametov is no more than a boy. I can pull his hair and one must draw him not repel him. You’ll never improve a man by repelling him, especially a boy. One has to be twice as careful with a boy. Oh, you progressive dullards! You don’t understand. You harm yourselves running another man down.... But if you want to know, we really have something in common.”

“Why, it’s all about a house-painter.... We are getting him out of a mess! Though indeed there’s nothing to fear now. The matter is absolutely self-evident. We only put on steam.”

“What’s the most offensive is not their lying—one can always forgive lying—lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth—what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying....”

But facts are not everything—at least half the business lies in how you interpret them!”

“Anyway, one can’t hold one’s tongue when one has a feeling, a tangible feeling, that one might be a help if only....”

“How can you, a doctor, whose duty it is to study man and who has more opportunity than anyone else for studying human nature—how can you fail to see the character of the man in the whole story?

one must take into consideration the facts which prove him innocent, especially as they are facts that cannot be denied.

“Too clever! No, my boy, you’re too clever. That beats everything.”

“Why, because everything fits too well... it’s too melodramatic.”

“whose familiarity seemed so much like unaffected good-nature”

“I feel the greatest regret at finding you in this situation,”

“A disgusting place—filthy, stinking and, what’s more, of doubtful character.

“Excuse me, I fancied so from your inquiry. I was once his guardian.... A very nice young man and advanced. I like to meet young people: one learns new things from them.”

“It’s ten years since I visited Petersburg. All the novelties, reforms, ideas have reached us in the provinces, but to see it all more clearly one must be in Petersburg. And it’s my notion that you observe and learn most by watching the younger generation. And I confess I am delighted...”

“Practicality is a difficult thing to find; it does not drop down from heaven. And for the last two hundred years we have been divorced from all practical life. Ideas, if you like, are fermenting,”

“and desire for good exists, though it’s in a childish form, and honesty you may find, although there are crowds of brigands.”

“Of course, people do get carried away and make mistakes, but one must have indulgence; those mistakes are merely evidence of enthusiasm for the cause and of abnormal external environment.”

“Literature is taking a maturer form, many injurious prejudices have been rooted up and turned into ridicule....”

“Why, if ever again... you dare to mention a single word... about my mother... I shall send you flying downstairs!”

“I am not speaking from temper, but in a friendly way, for sport, as that workman of yours said when he was scuffling with Dmitri, in the case of the old woman....”

He suddenly went off into the same nervous laugh as before, as though utterly unable to restrain himself.

to shout at them, to swear at them, to put out his tongue at them, to mock them, to laugh, and laugh, and laugh!

“But all that is only talk. I dare say when it came to deeds you’d make a slip. I believe that even a practised, desperate man cannot always reckon on himself, much less you and I.

“It means that I’m sick to death of you all and I want to be alone,”

“What a misfortune! Good Lord, what a misfortune!”

“For God’s sake be calm, don’t be frightened!” he said, speaking quickly, “he was crossing the road and was run over by a carriage, don’t be frightened, he will come to, I told them bring him here... I’ve been here already, you remember? He will come to; I’ll pay!”

She kept her head, forgetting herself, biting her trembling lips and stifling the screams which were ready to break from her.

She took up the basin of water at Raskolnikov’s request, but almost fell down with her burden.

“You might let him die in peace, at least,”

“You should respect the dead, at least!”

“God is merciful; look to the Most High for succour,” the priest began.

What earnings? He brought us in nothing but misery. He drank everything away, the drunkard!

“You must forgive in the hour of death, that’s a sin, madam, such feelings are a great sin.”

“Don’t worry the poor woman too much, she is in consumption as it is. Try and cheer her up, if possible... you are a kind-hearted man, I know...”

Life is real! haven’t I lived just now? My life has not yet died with that old woman! The Kingdom of Heaven to her—

Now for the reign of reason and light... and of will, and of strength... and now we will see! We will try our strength!”

Though why shouldn’t you imagine? Don’t we talk nonsense ourselves?

“I am a little giddy, but that’s not the point, I am so sad, so sad... like a woman. Look, what’s that? Look, look!”

“I know we are going in together, but I want to shake hands here and say good-bye to you here. So give me your hand, good-bye!”

“Let them rage to their hearts’ content!”

“If you stay, though you are his mother, you’ll drive him to a frenzy, and then goodness knows what will happen!

“But I am a fool, too!... No matter! Come along! Do you trust me? Come, do you trust me or not?”

“You see, you... you... understand me, because you are an angel!”

“But don’t mind me! Don’t take any notice: I am talking nonsense, I am not worthy of you.... I am utterly unworthy of you!

“If only you knew how I love you both! Don’t laugh, and don’t be angry! You may be angry with anyone, but not with me!

“I am his friend, and therefore I am your friend, too, I want to be...

Would you believe, they insist on complete absence of individualism and that’s just what they relish!

You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.

Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I’ll kiss you for it.

Truth won’t escape you, but life can be cramped.

We prefer to live on other people’s ideas, it’s what we are used to!

“you are a fount of goodness, purity, sense... and perfection.”

I am not worthy to love you, but to do homage to you is the duty of every man who is not a perfect beast!

“though all my friends there are drunk, yet they are all honest, and though we do talk a lot of trash, and I do, too, yet we shall talk our way to the truth at last, for we are on the right path, while Pyotr Petrovitch... is not on the right path.

There’s an attraction here—here you have the end of the world, an anchorage, a quiet haven, the navel of the earth, the three fishes that are the foundation of the world, the essence of pancakes, of savoury fish-pies, of the evening samovar, of soft sighs and warm shawls, and hot stoves to sleep on—

“And... the worst of it was he was so coarse, so dirty, he had the manners of a pothouse; and... and even admitting that he knew he had some of the essentials of a gentleman... what was there in that to be proud of? Everyone ought to be a gentleman and more than that...

So be it! Well, he’d make a point then of being dirty, greasy, pothouse in his manners and he wouldn’t care! He’d be worse!”

He says he is so busy that everything is a hindrance, and yet he lies in bed doing nothing.

“You mean he is not capable of love?”

They say, too, the girl was not at all pretty, in fact I am told positively ugly... and such an invalid... and queer.

“God forgive me, I simply rejoiced at her death. Though I don’t know which of them would have caused most misery to the other—he to her or she to him,”

“If I spoke so rudely of him last night, it was because I was disgustingly drunk and... mad besides; yes, mad, crazy, I lost my head completely...”

“little did I think that I should ever fear seeing my son, my darling, darling Rodya!

“Don’t be afraid, mother,” said Dounia, kissing her, “better have faith in him.” “Oh, dear, I have faith in him, but I haven’t slept all night,” exclaimed the poor woman.

“I simply don’t understand it... and... and... it weighs upon me, indeed, because I don’t understand it. I tell you so candidly.”

“Assume that you are my first patient—well—we fellows just beginning to practise love our first patients as if they were our children, and some almost fall in love with them. And, of course, I am not rich in patients.”

What generous impulses he has, and how simply, how delicately he put an end to all the misunderstanding with his sister—simply by holding out his hand at the right minute and looking at her like that....

Now that it’s all over and done with and we are quite happy again—I can tell you.

“A familiar phenomenon,” interposed Zossimov, “actions are sometimes performed in a masterly and most cunning way, while the direction of the actions is deranged and dependent on various morbid impressions—it’s like a dream.”

A normal man, it is true, hardly exists. Among dozens—perhaps hundreds of thousands—hardly one is to be met with.”

“If you reach a line you won’t overstep, you will be unhappy... and if you overstep it, maybe you will be still unhappier....”

“Yet in their absence I seemed to love them so much,”

“Not at all. Quite the contrary indeed. With her, he was always very patient, considerate even. In fact, all those seven years of their married life he gave way to her, too much so indeed, in many cases. All of a sudden he seems to have lost patience.”

You see, coming here, I was dreaming all the way, in the train, how we should meet, how we should talk over everything together...And I was so happy, I did not notice the journey!

“I really don’t know what drew me to her then—I think it was because she was always ill. If she had been lame or hunchback, I believe I should have liked her better still,”

“I would not marry him if I were not convinced that he esteems me and thinks highly of me.”

“I would not marry him if I were not firmly convinced that I can respect him.”

There is one expression, ‘blame yourselves’ put in very significantly and plainly, and there is besides a threat that he will go away at once if I am present.

In all this I see a too hasty desire to slander me and to raise dissension between us.

He is a man of intelligence, but to act sensibly, intelligence is not enough.

“Come, that’s capital,” he said to Sonia, going back and looking brightly at her. “God give peace to the dead, the living have still to live. That is right, isn’t it?”

“I really feel relieved myself at coming away—more at ease.

“You are both melancholy, both morose and hot-tempered, both haughty and both generous....”

I was so frightened. She was gazing at me with those eyes.

“I have been meaning to buy a lock for these two years. People are happy who have no need of locks,” he said, laughing, to Sonia.

“He is incredulous, sceptical, cynical... he likes to impose on people, or rather to make fun of them.”

One moment you were angry, and the next your face looked like a sweetmeat.

So they don’t care to hide that they are tracking me like a pack of dogs.

Come, strike me openly, don’t play with me like a cat with a mouse.

Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist!

That’s why they instinctively dislike history, ‘nothing but ugliness and stupidity in it,’ and they explain it all as stupidity!

That’s why they so dislike the living process of life; they don’t want a living soul!

“In his article all men are divided into ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary.’ Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because, don’t you see, they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary. That was your idea, if I am not mistaken?”

“In short, I maintain that all great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals—more or less, of course.”

“The first category is always the man of the present, the second the man of the future.”

“The first preserve the world and people it, the second move the world and lead it to its goal.”

“One in ten thousand perhaps—I speak roughly, approximately—is born with some independence, and with still greater independence one in a hundred thousand.

“The man of genius is one of millions, and the great geniuses, the crown of humanity, appear on earth perhaps one in many thousand millions.

“And, if so, could you bring yourself in case of worldly difficulties and hardship or for some service to humanity—to overstep obstacles?... For instance, to rob and murder?”

And how dared I, knowing myself, knowing how I should be, take up an axe and shed blood! I ought to have known beforehand.... Ah, but I did know!

“No, life is only given to me once and I shall never have it again; I don’t want to wait for ‘the happiness of all.’ I want to live myself, or else better not live at all.”

“I simply couldn’t pass by my mother starving, keeping my rouble in my pocket while I waited for the ‘happiness of all.‘”

“Did you suppose I was such a monster, such a reactionary, such a slave driver?”

She! Would you believe it, she talks of the silliest trifles and—man is a strange creature—it makes me angry.

I sat still and thought ‘he is doing it out of revenge,’ because we had a violent quarrel just before his death.

‘Go away, you scamp!’ He turned and went out, and never came again.

I didn’t ask you whether you believe that ghosts are seen, but whether you believe that they exist.”

“We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Instead of all that, what if it’s one little room, like a bath house in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is? I sometimes fancy it like that.”

Wasn’t I right in saying that we were birds of a feather?”

“Perhaps I’ll get married instead of the journey. They’re making a match for me.”

“At last I shook my fist in his ugly face, and told him as a cousin I’d brain him.”

“We can thrash them afterwards, but let’s laugh at them now!”

“I trust you had a favourable journey,”

He is the most depraved, and abjectly vicious specimen of that class of men.

“He was fairly cheerful and at ease, and quite hopes that we shall become friends.”

“I, too, do not desire and am not able to speak openly... in the presence of others... of certain matters of the greatest gravity.

I cannot let this pass considering the relationship and... the obligations existing between us.”

“I set your interest beside all that has hitherto been most precious in my life, what has made up the whole of my life, and here you are offended at my making too little account of you.”

“Love for the future partner of your life, for your husband, ought to outweigh your love for your brother,”

“To my thinking, you, with all your virtues, are not worth the little finger of that unfortunate girl at whom you throw stones.”

“God has delivered us! God has delivered us!”

“He wants to make you a present of ten thousand roubles and he desires to see you once in my presence.”

He assured me that his passion for you was a passing infatuation, now he has no feeling for you.

“They are very good people, very kind,”

“I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity,”

“It was not because of your dishonour and your sin I said that of you, but because of your great suffering. But you are a great sinner, that’s true,”

“and your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”

“She is a religious maniac!”

“I shall be a religious maniac myself soon! It’s infectious!”

“But I know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.”

“No one of them will understand, if you tell them, but I have understood. I need you, that is why I have come to you.”

“What’s to be done? Break what must be broken, once for all, that’s all, and take the suffering on oneself.

It’s all nonsense, my friend, you are pretending, to scare me! You’ve no proofs and the man I saw had no real existence. You simply want to make me lose my head, to work me up beforehand and so to crush me.

“And to be sure you’re right: God has given me a figure that can awaken none but comic ideas in other people; a buffoon;”

“Well, to proceed, wit in my opinion is a splendid thing, it is, so to say, an adornment of nature and a consolation of life, and what tricks it can play!”

“He will lie—that is, the man who is a special case, the incognito, and he will lie well, in the cleverest fashion;”

“You know perfectly well that the best policy for the criminal is to tell the truth as nearly as possible... to conceal as little as possible.”

“You must soothe and comfort them and you do nothing but frighten them...”

“But we shall meet again. If it’s God’s will, we may see a great deal of one another.”

“Forgive me for my evil thoughts, and my slander.”

You don’t understand; I used to think, indeed, that if women are equal to men in all respects, even in strength (as is maintained now) there ought to be equality in that, too.

“Yes, she is. For she is credulous and good-hearted, and she believes everything from the goodness of her heart and... and... and she is like that... yes... You must excuse her,” said Sonia, and again she got up to go.

You wanted to avoid gratitude, I saw!

“that he was in no way their inferior, and perhaps very much their superior,”

The worst of it was his good nature made him trust all sorts of disreputable people, and he drank with fellows who were not worth the sole of his shoe.