Excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The words of the deceased Priest and Monk, the Elder Zossima
"Mother darling,"
he would say, "there must be servants and masters, but if so I will be the
servant of my servants, the same as they are to me. And another thing, mother,
every one of us has sinned against all men, and I more than any."
Mother positively smiled at
that, smiled through her tears. "Why, how could you have sinned against
all men, more than all? Robbers and murderers have done that, but what sin have
you committed yet, that you hold yourself more guilty than all?"
"Mother, little heart of
mine," he said (he had begun using such strange caressing words at that
time), "little heart of mine, my joy, believe me, everyone is really
responsible to all men for all men and for everything. I don't know how to
explain it to you, but I feel it is so, painfully even. And how is it we went
on then living, getting angry and not knowing?"
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