“ the harder life is for a man or the more crushed and poor the people are, the more obstinately they dream of compensation in heaven ”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons (1872). copy citation
| Author | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
|---|---|
| Source | Demons |
| Topic | heaven life |
| 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
“not that you’re not a woman, but that you can’t be one just for the moment so as to understand.”
“You mean in the sense that the worse things are the better it is. I understand, I understand, Varvara Petrovna. It’s rather as it is in religion; the harder life is for a man or the more crushed and poor the people are, the more obstinately they dream of compensation in heaven; and if a hundred thousand priests are at work at it too, inflaming their delusion, and speculating on it, then ... I understand you, Varvara Petrovna, I assure you.”
“That’s not quite it; but tell me, ought Nicolas to have laughed at her and have treated her as the other clerks, in order to extinguish the delusion in this unhappy organism.””
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