Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment, Part I, Chapter II (1866) Translated by Constance Garnett
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Crime and Punishment, 1866.
- Why
- Raskolnikov says it after seeing how the Marmeladov family lives in poverty.
What it means
Raskolnikov is both disgusted and amazed that people can adapt to almost anything. Adaptation keeps us alive and also keeps us stuck.
It is worth asking what you have grown used to that you would rather not have.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Crime and Punishment, 1866
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