"Tell me, Karamazov, am I very ridiculous now?"
"But don't think about it, don't think about it at all!" Alyosha exclaimed. "And what does it mean--ridiculous? What does it matter how many times a man is or seems to be ridiculous? Besides nowadays almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous and are miserable because of it. I'm only surprised that you've begun to feel it so early, though, by the way, I've been noticing it for a very long time and not in you alone. Nowadays, even children are already beginning to suffer from it. It's almost a madness. The devil has incarnated himself in this vanity and crept into a whole generation--precisely the devil," Alyosha added, not smiling at all, as Kolya, who was looking at him intently thought for a moment."You are like everyone else," Alyosha concluded, "that is, like a great many others, only you ought not to be like everyone else, that's what."
"Even if everyone is like that?"
"Yes, even if everyone is like that...do not be like everyone else, even if you are the only one left who is not like that, still do not be like that."
-The Brothers Karamazov
