Posted by alii on May 22, 2002, at 15:53:31
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment
"And do you realize . . . that low ceilings and small, poky little rooms warp both mind and soul? Oh, how I loathed that hovel of mine! And yet I wouldn’t leave it. Wouldn’t leave it on purpose. Didn’t go out for days. Didn’t want to work. Didn’t want to eat even. Just lay about."
"I like people to talk rot. It’s man’s only privilege over the rest of creation. By talking rot, you eventually get to the truth. I’m a man because I talk rot. Not a single truth has ever been discovered without people first talking utter rot a hundred times or a hundred thousand times - and it’s, in a way, a highly commendable thing even. But so far as we are concerned, you see, the trouble is that we can’t even talk rot in our own way. Talk rot by all means, but do it in your own way, and I’ll be ready to kiss you for it. For to talk nonsense in your own way is a damn sight better than talking sense in someone else’s; in the first case, you’re a man; in the second, you’re nothing but a magpie!"
poster:alii
thread:24331
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020517/msgs/24331.html