"It is curious how the most complete conceptions are being quite imperceptibly inoculated into the child who, being still incapable of connecting two thoughts, sometimes grasp the deepest phenomena of life. A learned German once stated that any child, upon completing the first three years of his life, has acquired a full third of ideas and knowledge with which, as an elder, he will be laid in his grave."
That is very interesting. It means that childhood is as important as any important period of discoveries in our lives. How much a child perceives and understands! It is something to be pure...they are closest to perfection... closest to nature. As if childhood is the transition between the realms we came from to this earthly life...
"More gifted and segregated children are always more reserved, and if they are joyous, it is invariably with a knack at leadership and bossing."
Those type of people seem very aggressive when they get older...Sometimes, a good chunk of the population seems that way.
"...since what is hypocrisy? - It is a ransom which vice is compelled to pay to virtue- which is an extremely comforting thought to him who wishes to remain vicious in practice but at the same time not to sever, in his soul, at least, with virtue. Oh, vice is very fond of paying ransom to virtue, and this is good; temporarily he should be satisfied with even that much- isn't this so?"
It is a line in between virtue and vice... Vice knows it is doing something wrong, but yet wants to live in the comfort of its continuation. It is good to have this "prick of the conscience" even up to this point. When one knows he is a hypocrite, there is still hope! But once the vice stops "paying ransom to virtue" and goes loose, the conscience will be buried underground.
"Indeed, we are all good fellows- except the bad ones of course."
:)
"Look attentively, and you will see that, in our case, first comes faith in an idea, in an ideal, while earthly goods come after."
Yes, first is the spiritual, the earthly goods are only a mere extra.
"The lad of our days, about whom so many controversial things are said, often adores a most naive paradox, sacrificing for it everything- the world, his fate, his very life; but his is due to only the fact that he regards his paradox as the truth. Here we are confronted with the lack of enlightenment. When light appears, different viewpoints will arise of their own accord; paradoxes will vanish, but the purity of heart, the thirst for sacrifice and exploit, which gleam in him so brightly, will not fade. And this is what really counts."
And it really is naive, to give up everything for faith. But is that not what humanity is made for? To believe in the unseen? In an ideal? Whether God or a philosophy...man is capable of an astounding determination when it comes to faith. And in the end, when all is said and done, this faith is what continues to glow.
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It is so good to know Dostoevsky's thoughts! And I still haven't finished it, the library will only let me borrow it for so long...
There are such interesting stories in there though, such a treat!
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