Consciousness is the greatest misfortune for man, yet I know man prizes it and would not give it up for any satisfaction.
Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from Underground, Part I, Chapter IX (1864) Translated by Constance Garnett
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Notes from Underground, 1864.
- Why
- The narrator is arguing against a world reduced to reason and arithmetic.
What it means
The underground man calls awareness a burden and refuses to trade it away. He would rather suffer and know than be content and blind.
Most of us recognise both halves of that feeling.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Notes from Underground, 1864
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