“ If there are people wiser than we are, then there are people more right than we are, and we may be mistaken, you mean? ”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons (1872). copy citation
| Author | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
|---|---|
| Source | Demons |
| Topic | meaning right |
| Date | 1872 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Constance Garnett in 1916 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8117/8117-h/8117-h.htm |
Context
““Listen, Stepan Trofimovitch, of course I’m ignorant compared with you on all learned subjects, but as I was travelling here I thought a great deal about you. I’ve come to one conclusion.”
“What conclusion?”
“That you and I are not the wisest people in the world, but that there are people wiser than we are.”
“Witty and apt. If there are people wiser than we are, then there are people more right than we are, and we may be mistaken, you mean? Mais, ma bonne amie, granted that I may make a mistake, yet have I not the common, human, eternal, supreme right of freedom of conscience? I have the right not to be bigoted or superstitious if I don’t wish to, and for that I shall naturally be hated by certain persons to the end of time.”
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