Categoria: BTG I
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B36
B35 B37 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 36] Once upon a time a certain Russian, who in external appearance was to those around him a simple merchant, had to go from his provincial town on some business or other to this second capital of Russia, the city of Moscow, and his son, his…
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B25
B24 B26 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 25] I decided to do this without fail so that this initial chapter of mine, predetermined as I have already said to awaken your consciousness, should fully justify its purpose, and reaching not only your, in my opinion, as yet only fictitious “consciousness,” but also your…
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B26
B25 B27 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 26] As a result of this conviction of mine which as yet doubtlessly seems to you the fruit of the fantasies of an afflicted mind, I cannot now, as you yourself see, disregard this second consciousness and, compelled by my essence, am obliged to construct the…
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B27
B26 B28 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 27] Now listen and try to justify, and not to disappoint, my expectations. This original personality of mine, already “smelled out” by certain definite individuals from both choirs of the Judgement Seat Above, whence Objective justice proceeds, and also here on Earth, by as yet a…
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B28
B27 B29 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 28] “Either do nothing – just go to school – or do something nobody else does.” Whereupon she immediately, without hesitation, and with a perceptible impulse of disdain for all around her, and with commendable self-cognizance, gave up her soul directly into the hands of His…
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B29
B28 B30 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 29] During the days following this event, nothing particular happened in my general state, unless there might be connected with it the fact that during these days, I walked more often than usual with my feet in the air, that is to say, on my hands.…
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B31
B30 B32 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 31] And this event occurred under the following circumstances which were perhaps even specially combined by Fate itself. With a number of young rascals like myself, I was once laying snares for pigeons on the roof of a neighbor’s house, when suddenly, one of the boys…
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B32
B31 B33 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 32] He discharged the last words with such a shower of saliva that it was as if my face were exposed to the action of an “atomizer” – not of “Ersatz” production – invented by the Germans for dyeing material with aniline dyes. This was more…
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B33
B32 B34 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 33] Well, then, on beholding the effect of my skill, I was, I must confess, extremely frightened, because, knowing nothing of any such reaction from a blow in that place, I quite thought I had killed him. At the moment I was experiencing this fear, another…
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B34
B33 B35 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 34] After this silence, unusual for us “young rascals,” the usual hubbub broke out again, and in this hubbub it was decided to go immediately to the barber, a specialist in extracting teeth, and to ask him just why this tooth was like that. So we…
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B35
B34 B36 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 35] This property newly formed in me after this event – when I, of course with the co-operation of our ALL-COMMON MASTER THE MERCILESS HEROPASS, that is the “flow of time,” was transformed into the young man already depicted by me – became for me a…
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B24
B23 B25 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 24] Well, enough of “philologizing.” Let us return to the main task of this initial chapter, destined, among other things, on the one hand to stir up the drowsy thoughts in me as well as in the reader, and, on the other, to warn the reader…
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B37
B36 B38 [BTG I The arousing of thought, pp. 1-37/38] Thereupon the salesman, making as is said the “oleaginous” face proper to all salesmen, replied that the book indeed cost only forty-five kopecks, but had to be sold at sixty because fifteen kopecks were added for postage. After this reply to our Russian merchant who…
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B39
B38 B40 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 39] If before my acquaintance with this “all-universal principle of living” I had actualized all manifestations differently from other biped animals similar to me, arising and vegetating with me on one and the same planet, then I did so automatically, and sometimes only half consciously, but…
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B40
B39 B41 [BTG I The arousing of thought, p. 40] “If you go on a spree then go the whole hog including the postage.” And now, for instance, in the present case also, since, owing to causes not dependent on me, but flowing from the strange and accidental circumstances of my life, I happen to…
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B10
B9 B11 The Russian language, it cannot be denied, is very good. I even like it, but . . . only for swapping anecdotes and for use in referring to someone’s parentage. The Russian language is like the English, which language is also very good, but only for discussing in “smoking rooms,” while sitting on…
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B11
B10 B12 And the chief reason for this unhappiness of mine in my almost already mellow age, results from the fact that since childhood there was implanted in my peculiar psyche, together with numerous other rubbish also unnecessary for contemporary life, such an inherency as always and in everything automatically enjoins the whole of me…
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B12
B11 B13 Briefly, if I exercise my privilege and take the good end of the stick, then the bad end must inevitably fall “on the reader’s head.” This may indeed happen, because in Russian the so to say “niceties” of philosophical questions cannot be expressed, which questions I intend to touch upon in my writings…
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B13
B12 B14 Almost the same might be said about my native language, Greek, which I spoke in childhood and, as might be said, the “taste of the automatic associative power of which” I still retain. I could now, I dare say, express anything I wish in it, but to employ it for writing is for…