Because some fool, or a rogue pretending to be a fool, strikes a man, that man is to be dishonoured for his whole life, unless he wipes out the disgrace with blood, or makes his assailant beg forgiveness on his knees!
 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot (1874). copy citation

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Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Source The Idiot
Topic forgiveness life
Date 1874
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Eva Martin
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2638/2638-h/2638-h.htm

Context

“I could forgive Gania if he were to marry her for love, but for money! Oh dear! that is horrible! ” “ Yes, your brother does not attract me much. ” “ I am not surprised at that. After what you... But I do hate that way of looking at things! Because some fool, or a rogue pretending to be a fool, strikes a man, that man is to be dishonoured for his whole life, unless he wipes out the disgrace with blood, or makes his assailant beg forgiveness on his knees! I think that so very absurd and tyrannical. Lermontoff’s Bal Masque is based on that idea—a stupid and unnatural one, in my opinion; but he was hardly more than a child when he wrote it. ” “ I like your sister very much. ”” source