From the pen of Fyo D.

I should probably do these in order... there are several quotes I'd like to put in as examples of why I enjoyed reading The Brothers Karamazov. In order of appearance as opposed to order of size, alphabetical order, or even in order of preference, since I haven't read the quotes all together recently and couldn't be bothered to rank them.

And by appearance I don't mean the way they look on the page, mean the order in which they appear in the book, my having read from page one onwards.

Alexei is speaking with his mentor, Father Zosima, who is recounting some of his experiences as a younger man. He has recently resigned his commission in the military over a duel. After news of the resignation and why, a wealthy but distant man who lives in the same town starts to visit him, and they have some deep discussions. The visitor says that he agrees with the younger Zosima that everyone is responsible for everyone else. That if people do not think in that way, heaven can never come to be. I liked particularly the comments on isolation. Father Zosima is telling the story to Alyosha.

As he spoke he looked at me and smiled, and I thought he was about to revel something to me.

"Heaven is within reach of every one of us, and now it is within me reach too; if I chose I could have it tomorrow, real heaven, for all my life."

He spoke with fervor and looked at me mysteriously, as if asking something of me.

"As to every man being answerable for everybody and everything, not just for his own sins," he went on, "you are absolutely right about it, and the way you succeeded in grasping that idea so fully, all at once, is really remarkable. It is true that when men understand that idea, the kingdom of God will no longer be a dream but a reality."

"But when do you expect that to happen?" I cried bitterly. "When will it come about, if ever? Perhaps it's just a dream and nothing more."

"So you don't believe yourself, " he answered, "in the things you preach to others. Let me tell you, then, that this dream, as you call it, will most certainly come true. You may rest assured of that, but it will not happen immediately, because everything that happens in the world is controlled by its own set of laws. In this case, it is a psychological matter, a state of mind. In order to change the world, man's way of thinking must be changed. Thus, there can be no brotherhood of men before all men become each other's brothers. There is no science, no order based on the pursuit of material gain, that will enable men to share their goods fairly and to respect each other's rights. There will never be enough to satisfy everyone; men will always be envious of their neighbors and will always destroy one another. So to your question when heaven on earth will come about, I can only promise you that it will come without fail, but first the period of man's isolation must come to an end."

"What isolation?" I asked him.

"The isolation that you find everywhere, particularly in your age. But it won't come to an end right now, because the time has not yet come. Today everyone asserts his own personality and strives to live a full life as an individual. But these efforts lead not to a full life, but to suicide, because, instead of realizing his personality, man only slips into total isolation. For in our age mankind has been broken up into self-contained individuals, each of whom retreats into his lair, trying to stay away from the rest, hiding himself and his belongings from the rest of mankind, and finally isolating himself from people and the people from him. And, while he accumulates material wealth in his isolation, he thinks with satisfaction how mighty and secure he has become, because he is mad and cannot see that the more goods he accumulates, the deeper he sinks into suicidal impotence. The reason fo rthis is that hshas become accustomed to relying only on himself; he has split off from the whole and become an isolated unit; he has trained his soul not to rely on human help, not to believe in men and mankind, and only to worry that the wealth and privileges he has accumulated may get lost. Everywhere men today are turning scornfully away from the ttruth that the security of the individual cannot be achieved by his isolated efforts but only by mankind as a whole.

"But an end to this fearful isolation is bound to come and all men will understand how unnatural it was for them to have isolated themselves from one another. This will be the spirit of the new era and people will look back in amazement at the past, when they sat in darkness and refused to see the light. And it is then that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens... But until that day we must keep hope alive, and now and then a man must set an example, if only an isolated one, by trying to lift his soul out of its isolation and offering it up in an act of brotherly communion, to keep the great idea alive.

I can tell you there is a huge amount of isolation in the community where I live. People shun one another, not even necessarily out of fear, but out of habit, not questioning their own actions, assuming it's for good reason, vaguely reminding themselves on occasion that the world is getting worse.

The world is getting worse, it is a result of thinking that 'everything is permitted' which by the way is a recurring theme in the book. People these days seem to have seriously adopted that mentality, that everything is permitted, and the isolation and unfriendliness is really distrust and suspicion; they feel justified in acting however they want though it may encroach on others, and they fear reproach. Because everything is permitted, who are you to reproach me?