The Brothers Karamazov

Excerpt from Chapter 4   –   A Hymn and a Secret

by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

“In any case, what is suffering? I am not afraid of it, even though it be numberless. Now I am not afraid, though before I was. You know, I may not even answer at my trial…And it seems to me that there is so much of this strength in me now that I shall vanquish everything, all of the suffering, only so that I may keep saying to myself constantly: ‘I am!’ I may endure a thousand torments – yet I am, I may writhe under torture – but I am! I may sit in a tower, but I exist, I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there – that is already the whole of life.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *