Shirley H. Strobel

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Curriculum Unit

The Brothers Karamazov

“Such memories may be recalled (as everyone knows) from an even earlier age, even from two years old, emerging during one’s entire life only as bright spots in the darkness, as a corner torn off a huge picture that has faded and disappeared except for this one little corner.”

“Among the common people there is a silent, long-suffering grief; it withdraws into itself and remains quiet. But there’s also grief that can’t be contained: it breaks through in tears and finds its voice in fits of wailing. This is especially common among women. But this grief is no easier to bear than silent grief. These lamentations offer consolation only by further lacerating the heart. But consolation isn’t really what such grief is striving for; it feeds on its own futility. Such lamentations represent merely a wish to keep the open wound inflamed.”

“The experience of active love. Strive intently to love your neighbors actively and tirelessly. The more you succeed in loving, the more you will become convinced of the existence of God and of the immortality of your own soul. If you achieve total self-sacrifice in love for your neighbor, you will believe without any doubt, and no doubt whatsoever can ever enter your soul. This has been tested. This is certain.”

“I love all humanity,’ he declared, ‘but I’m surprised at myself: the more I love humanity in general, the less I love people in particular—that is, separately, as single individuals. In my dreams,’ he said, ‘I frequently imagine the most passionate and far-reaching plans for serving humanity, and I think I might even be willing to be crucified for the sake of humanity, should that suddenly be demanded of me; at the same time, it’s impossible for me to live in the same room with another person for even two days; I know this from experience. If anyone gets close to me, his personality undermines my self-esteem and restricts my freedom. In the space of a single day, I begin to hate even the best of men—one because he takes so long to eat his dinner, another because he has a cold and blows his nose constantly. I become an enemy of people,’ he tells me, ‘as soon as they draw close to me. On the other hand, it invariably happens that the more I detest individual people, the more fervent is my love for humanity in general.’ ”

The Brothers Karamazov quotes

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