To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment, Part III, Chapter I (1866) Translated by Constance Garnett
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- From Crime and Punishment, 1866.
- Why
- Razumihin is arguing with friends who repeat other people's ideas.
What it means
Razumihin values thinking for yourself, even at the cost of errors, over borrowed correctness.
A journal is a good place to go wrong in your own way, and then to notice.
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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