FLAIL! e-zine

...She's infinitely nobler than you, morally anyway, excuse my saying so... but she's only an infinitely noble corpse...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

..."They do not at all approve of women going to see an execution there. The women who do go are condemned for it afterwards in the newspapers."
"That is, by contending that it is not a sight for women they admit that it is a sight for men. I congratulate them on the deduction..."

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too...

-Notes from the Underground, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...If I had a reader and he had read all I have written so far of my adventures, there would be certainly no need to inform him that I am not created for any sort of society...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...Generally speaking, all my life up to now, in all my dreams of how I would behave with people, I always imagined myself being very clever; it was very different in reality--I was always very stupid; and I confess sincerely, with indignation, I always gave myself away and was flustered, and so I resolved to cut people off altogether...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

..."There is evidently a misunderstanding,"Vassin interposed suddenly, "the mistake arises from the fact that Kraft's conclusion is not a mere logical theory but, so to say, a theory that has been transmuted into a feeling. All natures are not alike; in some men a logical deduction is sometimes transmuted into a very powerful emotion which takes possession of the whole being, and is sometimes very difficult to dislodge or alter. To cure such a man the feeling itself must be changed, which is only possible by replacing it by another, equally powerful one. That's always difficult, and in many cases impossible."...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...It was not that I disliked them exactly, but that their presence weighed upon me...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...I may not be a nonentity, but I know from the looking-glass that my exterior does not do me justice, for my face is commonplace...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...The affair with the student showed that the "idea" might absorb me till it blurred my impressions and drew me away from the realities of life. The incident with little Arina proved, on the contrary, that no "idea" was strong enough to absorb me, at least so completely that I should not stop short in the face of an overwhelming fact and sacrifice to it at once all that I had done for the "idea" by years of labour...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...Besides, it's a well-known fact that very many people who are capable of contemplating their approaching death, whether it's by their own hand or not, frequently show a tendency to worry themselves about leaving their body in a presentable condition...

-A Raw Youth, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...If it were only possible (which, however, from the laws of human nature never can be possible), if it were possible for every one of us to describe all his secret thoughts, without hesitating to disclose what he is afraid to tell and would not on any account tell other people, what he is afraid to tell his best friends, what, indeed, he is even at times afraid to confess to himself, the world would be filled with such a stench that we should all be suffocated. That's why, I may observe in parenthesis, our social proprieties and conventions are so good. They have a profound value, I won't say for morality, but simply for self-preservation, for comfort, which, of course, is even more, since morality is really that same comfort, that is, it's invented simply for the sake of comfort...

-The Insulted and The Injured, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...He philosophised till he destroyed everything, everything, even the obligation of all normal and natural human duties, till at last he had nothing left. The sum total came to nil, and so he declared that the best thing in life was prussic acid...

-The Insulted and The Injured, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...Oh, don't apologize. No, I don't think I have either talents or special abilities of any kind; on the contrary. I have always been an invalid and unable to learn much...

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

..."Of what? Apologizing, eh? And where on earth did I get the idea that you were an idiot? You always observe what other people pass by unnoticed;..."

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

[The next two are amusing partly because they were written in the 1800s.]

...You say that I have no originality. Now mark this, prince-- there is nothing so offensive to a man of our time and race than to be told that he is wanting in originality, that he is weak in character, has no particular talent, and is, in short, an ordinary person...

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

...There used to be a certain amount of solidity in all things, but now what happens? Everything is exposed to the public gaze, veils are thrown back, every wound is probed by careless fingers. We are for ever present at an orgy of scandalous revelations...

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

..."I am assuredly noble-minded, and chivalrous to a degree!" said Keller, much softened. "But, do you know, this nobility of mind exists in a dream, if one may put it so? It never appears in practice or deed. Now, why is that? I can never understand."...

-The Idiot, by FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY