“ what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? ”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864). copy citation
| Author | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
|---|---|
| Source | Notes from Underground |
| Topic | quality |
| Date | 1864 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/600/600-h/600-h.htm |
Context
“there are continually turning up in life moral and rational persons, sages and lovers of humanity who make it their object to live all their lives as morally and rationally as possible, to be, so to speak, a light to their neighbours simply in order to show them that it is possible to live morally and rationally in this world. And yet we all know that those very people sooner or later have been false to themselves, playing some queer trick, often a most unseemly one. Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick.”
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