‘On the fact that to the virtues and merits of the civilized Westerner, there has, historically, been added – almost as his main virtue – a capacity for acquiring capital, whereas not only is the Russian incapable of acquiring capital, but he also loses what he has wantonly and by sheer folly. Nonetheless, we RussiansContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Russian Ineptitude and German Efficiency (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
Tag Archives: Fyodor Dostoevsky
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: A Gentlemen is Not Concerned About Money When Gambling (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Yes, even if a gentleman should lose his whole fortune, he must never give way to anger. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman as never to be worth a thought. Of course, the supremely aristocratic thing is to be entirely oblivious of the rabble and all one’s surroundings, but sometimes it may beContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: A Gentlemen is Not Concerned About Money When Gambling (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Nature of a Gentleman Gambler (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
For instance a gentleman may stake, say, five or ten louis d’or – seldom more, unless he is a very rich man, when he may stake, say, a thousand francs – but he must do this simply for the love of the game itself, simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process ofContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Nature of a Gentleman Gambler (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Roulette a Sordid Gambling Activity (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
In the first place, everything about it seemed so sordid – morally nasty and dirty, that is. I’m not talking about the expectant, restless folk who, in their scores – even in their hundreds – could be seen crowded around the gaming tables, because I could see nothing sordid in a desire to win quicklyContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Roulette a Sordid Gambling Activity (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Ideology a Virulent Plague (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
He dreamt that the whole world was condemned to a terrible new strange plague that had come to Europe from the depths of Asia. All were to be destroyed except a very few chosen. Some new sorts of microbes were attacking the bodies of men, but these microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. MenContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Ideology a Virulent Plague (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: He Murdered for Himself (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
‘I didn’t do the murder to gain wealth and power and to become a benefactor of mankind. Nonsense! I simply did it; I did the murder for myself alone, and whether I became a benefactor to others, or spent my life like a spider catching men in my web and sucking the life out ofContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: He Murdered for Himself (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: A Tremendous Fall from Grace at a Funeral Dinner for Her Husband (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Perhaps the chief element was that peculiar ‘poor man’s pride’ which compels many poor people to spend their last savings on some traditional special ceremony, simply in order to do ‘like other people’ and not ‘be looked down upon’. It is very probable too, that Katerina Ivanovna longed on this occasion, at the moment whenContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: A Tremendous Fall from Grace at a Funeral Dinner for Her Husband (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: There Can be No Deception in a “Free Marriage” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
“I understand it now where the unpleasantness is of being deceived in a legal marriage, but it’s simply a despicable consequence of a despicable position in which both are humiliated. When the deception is open, as in a free marriage, then it does not exist, it’s unthinkable. Your wife will only prove how she respectsContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: There Can be No Deception in a “Free Marriage” (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Clever Cross Examination of a Criminal (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
I believe it’s a sort of legal rule-a sort of legal tradition-for all investigating lawyers to begin their attack from afar, with a trivial, or least and irrelevant subject, so as to encourage or, rather, to divert the man they are cross examining, to disarm his caution and then all at once to give himContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: The Clever Cross Examination of a Criminal (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Poor and Under His Thumb So He Would Like to Believe (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
Dounia was simply essential to him, to do without her was unthinkable. For many years he had had voluptuous dreams of marriage, but he had gone on waiting and amassing money. He brooded with relish, in profound secret, over the image of a girl-virtuous, poor ( she must be poor), very young, very poor, ofContinue reading “RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Poor and Under His Thumb So He Would Like to Believe (Fyodor Dostoevsky)”
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