Book: The Idiot
Quotes of Book: The Idiot
There is nothing so annoying as to be fairly rich, of a fairly good family,pleasing presence, average education, to be "not stupid," kindhearted,and yet to have no talent at all, no originality, not a single ideaof one's own-to be, in fact, "just like everyone else."Of such people there are countless numbers in this world-far moreeven than appear. They can be divided into two classes as all mencan-that is, those of limited intellect, and those who are much cleverer.The former of these classes is the happier.To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing issimpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in thatbelief without the slightest misgiving.Many of our young women have thought fit to cut their hair short, puton blue spectacles, and call themselves Nihilists. By doing this they havebeen able to persuade themselves, without further trouble, that theyhave acquired new convictions of their own. Some men have but feltsome little qualm of kindness towards their fellow-men, and the fact hasbeen quite enough to persuade them that they stand alone in the van ofenlightenment and that no one has such humanitarian feelings as they.Others have but to read an idea of somebody else's, and they can immediatelyassimilate it and believe that it was a child of their own brain.The "impudence of ignorance," if I may use the expression, is developedto a wonderful extent in such cases;-unlikely as it appears, it is metwith at every turn.... those belonged to the other class-to the "much cleverer"persons, though from head to foot permeated and saturated withthe longing to be original. This class, as I have said above, is far lesshappy. For the "clever commonplace" person, though he may possiblyimagine himself a man of genius and originality, none the less has withinhis heart the deathless worm of suspicion and doubt; and this doubtsometimes brings a clever man to despair. {As a rule, however, nothingtragic happens;-his liver becomes a little damaged in the course of time,nothing more serious. Such men do not give up their aspirations afteroriginality without a severe struggle,-and there have been men who,though good fellows in themselves, and even benefactors to humanity,have sunk to the level of base criminals for the sake of originality} book-quote
