To be too conscious is an illness--a real thorough-going illness.
Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from Underground, Part I, Chapter II (1864) Translated by Constance Garnett
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Notes from Underground, 1864.
- Why
- The narrator describes his endless self-analysis, which leaves him unable to act.
What it means
Dostoevsky's narrator thinks so much about himself that he cannot live. Reflection that never ends in action becomes its own trap.
Writing helps most when it ends somewhere: a decision, a step, a lighter mind.
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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