“ A man cannot be accused of robbery, if it's impossible to state accurately what he has stolen ”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880). copy citation
Author | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
---|---|
Source | The Brothers Karamazov |
Topic | robbery state |
Date | 1880 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translated by Constance Garnett |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28054/28054-h/28054-h.html https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov |
Context
“He was not running to carry out a program, to carry out what he had written, that is, not for an act of premeditated robbery, but he ran suddenly, spontaneously, in a jealous fury. Yes! I shall be told, but when he got there and murdered him he seized the money, too. But did he murder him after all? The charge of robbery I repudiate with indignation. A man cannot be accused of robbery, if it's impossible to state accurately what he has stolen; that's an axiom. But did he murder him without robbery, did he murder him at all? Is that proved? Isn't that, too, a romance?”
Chapter XII. And There Was No Murder Either “Allow me, gentlemen of the jury, to remind you that a man's life is at stake and that you must be careful.”
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