Let her, if she will, forgive him her own suffering, her own extreme anguish as a mother, but she has no right to forgive the suffering of her mutilated child; even if the child himself forgives, she has no right! And if that is so, if the right to forgive does not exist, then where is harmony?

am glad my young hero did not turn out to be too rational at such a moment, since there will always be plenty of opportunity for an intelligent person to employ his intellect, but if love did not hold sway in his heart at such an exceptional moment, would it ever do so?

If a man carries many such memories with him, they will keep him safe throughout his life. And even if only one such memory stays in our hearts, it may prove to be our salvation one day.

‘What is hell?’* I argue thus: ‘It is the suffering caused by not being able to love any more.’

‘You’re like all of them,’ concluded Alyosha, ‘that is, you’re like a lot of people, only you don’t have to be like them, like everyone, that’s all.’ ‘Even in spite of the fact that everyone’s like that?’

if you come together with one other person like yourself, there you have a whole world, a world of vibrant love;

Filial love, if the father is not deserving of it, is an absurdity, an impossibility. Love cannot be born of nothing, God alone can create something out of nothing.

With people it’s all a question of what they’re used to, even in the matter of the state and politics. Habit is the prime mover.

“Mostly you have to look after people like you do children, and some you have to look after like patients in hospital”…’