Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave.
 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864). copy citation

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Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Source Notes from Underground
Topic age
Date 1864
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/600/600-h/600-h.htm

Context

“Perhaps I was the only one in the office who fancied that I was a coward and a slave, and I fancied it just because I was more highly developed. But it was not only that I fancied it, it really was so. I was a coward and a slave. I say this without the slightest embarrassment. Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave. That is his normal condition. Of that I am firmly persuaded. He is made and constructed to that very end. And not only at the present time owing to some casual circumstances, but always, at all times, a decent man is bound to be a coward and a slave.” source