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We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast. But why… — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Novel

We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast. But why must it be vast? Instead of all that, what if it’s one little room, like a bath house in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is?

In the original Russian

Нам вот всё представляется вечность как идея, которую понять нельзя, что-то огромное, огромное! Да почему же непременно огромное? И вдруг, вместо всего этого, представьте себе, будет там одна комнатка, эдак вроде деревенской бани, закоптелая, а по всем углам пауки, и вот и вся вечность.

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment · 1866
★ 7.3
Other tags relating to this quote
Topic
EternityThe afterlife
Medium
Novel
Time
1866
Person
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Provenance
Current citation
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment, translated and edited by Michael R. Katz. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Original citation
Dostoyevsky, Feodor. Преступленіе и наказаніе [Crime and Punishment]. The Russian Messenger, Jan. 1866 - Dec. 1866, monthly serial.

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