Crime and Punishment Quotes

Quote 1: "Why am I going there now? Am I capable of that? Is that serious? It is not serious at all. It's simply a fantasy to amuse myself; a plaything! Yes, maybe it is a plaything." Chapter 1, pg. 2

Quote 2: "Why am I to be pitied, you say? Yes! There's nothing to pity me for! I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, not pitied! Crucify me, oh judge, crucify me but pity me?" Chapter 2, pg. 20

Quote 3: "What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind-then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it's all as it should be." Chapter 2, pg. 24

Quote 4: "Good God!" he cried, "can it be, can it be, that I shall really take an axe, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open...that I shall tread in the sticky warm blood, blood...with the axe...Good God, can it be?" Chapter 5, pg. 53

Quote 5: "Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or think, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!...How true it is! Good God, how true! Man is a vile creature!...And vile is he who calls him vile for that." Chapter 13, pg. 139

Quote 6: "Life is real! Haven't I lived just now? My life has not yet died with that old woman! The Kingdom of Heaven to her-and now enough, madam, leave me in peace! Now for the reign of reason and light...and of will, and of strength...and now we will see! We will try our strength!" Chapter 14, pg. 167

Quote 7: "Actions are sometimes performed in a masterly and most cunning way, while the direction of the actions is deranged and dependent on various morbid impressions-it's like a dream." Chapter 17, pg. 197

Quote 8: "If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment-as well as the prison." Chapter 19, pg. 230

Quote 9: "I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity." Chapter 24, pg. 279

Quote 10: "Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, and then bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer!' Then God will send you life again. Will you go, will you go?" Chapter 30, pg. 361

Quote 11: "It was I killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them." Chapter 39, pg. 458

Quote 12: "They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other." Epilogue, pg. 471