Ah, Father! Thatโs words and only words! Forgive! If heโd not been run over, heโd have come home today drunk and his only shirt dirty and in rags and heโd have fallen asleep like a log, and I should have been sousing and rinsing till daybreak, washing his rags and the childrenโs and then drying them by the window and as soon as it was daylight I should have been darning them. Whatโs the use of talking forgiveness! I have forgiven as it is!
Fyodor DostoevskyThere is only one way to salvation, and that is to make yourself responsible for all men's sins. As soon as you make yourself responsible in all sincerity for everything and for everyone, you will see at once that this is really so, and that you are in fact to blame for everyone and for all things.
Fyodor DostoevskyI tell you, the old-fashioned doctor who treated all diseases has completely disappeared, now there are only specialists, and they advertise all the time in the newspapers. If your nose hurts, they send you to Paris: there's a European specialist there, he treats noses. You go to Paris, he examines your nose: I can treat only your right nostril, he says, I don't treat left nostrils, it's not my specialty, but after me, go to Vienna, there's a separate specialist there who will finish treating your left nostril.
Fyodor Dostoevsky