Best quotes from Crime and Punishment

I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.

Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! … They believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organise all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process! … The living soul demands life; the soul won’t obey the rules of mechanics.

But all at once, in that same moment, she understood everything. Infinite happiness lit up in her eyes; she understood, and for her there was no longer any doubt that he loved her, loved her infinitely, and that at last the moment had come. . . .

- Raskolnikov

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

When reason fails, the devil helps!

Kill her, take her money and with the help of it devote oneself to the service of humanity and the good of all. What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds? … One death, and a hundred lives in exchange—it’s simple arithmetic!

She was a complete slave and went in fear and trembling of her sister, who made her work day and night, and even beat her.

I’ve so much to do of my own business and other people’s. Ah, Rodion Romanovitch,’ he added suddenly, ‘what all men need is fresh air, fresh air … more than anything!

A hundred suspicions don't make a proof.

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment-as well as the prison.