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.
It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that one must acknowledge and glorify those who consume or benefit from them.
In this quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the speaker explores the dynamic between the consumer and the consumed. It highlights a philosophical reflection on the relationship between power and subservience, suggesting that in order to partake in something—especially something as fundamental as being 'eaten'—one must also celebrate and extol the virtues of the 'devourer,' or the one in power. This illuminates the often complex interplay of dependency and admiration that exists in relationships where one party dominates another, whether in a literal, metaphorical, or existential sense.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion on toxic relationships where one person consistently praises their abuser.
More from Fyodor Dostoevsky
All quotes →What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.
Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that if you have the guillotine in the forefront, and with such glee, it's for the sole reason that cutting heads off is the easiest thing, and having an idea is difficult!
...to return to their 'native soil,' as they say, to the bosom, so to speak, of their mother earth, like frightened children, yearning to fall asleep on the withered bosom of their decrepit mother, and to sleep there for ever, only to escape the horrors that terrify them.
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Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
What ought a man be? Well, my short answer is 'himself'.
Only powerful people have liberty.
Conventions vs. spontaneity. This is a dialectical choice, it depends on the assessment you make of your own times. If you judge that your own time is ridden with empty insincere formalities, you plump for spontaneity, for indecorous behavior even...Much of morality is the task of compensating for one's age. One assumes unfashionable virtues, in an indecorous time. In a time hollowed out by decorum, one must school oneself in spontaneity.
The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint
A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which historically have served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism - the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Mercy toward the animals in our care is one such casualty.