"What is to be done with the millions of facts that bear witness that men, consciously, that is fully understanding their real interests, have left them in the background and have rushed headlong on another path, to meet peril and danger, compelled to this course by nobody and nothing, but, as it were, simply disliking the beaten track, and have obstinately, wilfully, struck out another difficult, absurd way, seeking it almost in the darkness."

"What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice."

"I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness."

"Reactionary as it is, corporal punishment is better than nothing."

Quotes from Notes From The Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky