"The end of time will be marked by acts of unfathomable compassion"

"The end of time will be marked by acts of unfathomable compassion."
This quote is allegedly by Dostoevsky but I am unable to track down the source.

Something about it strikes me very powerfully, even making me shiver at times. I first heard this line several decades ago and it has always stuck with me.

I picture a planet in ruins, going down somehow, billions of lives threatened, and yet, even amidst the most terrible disasaters -- perhaps even terminal disasters -- something in the human spirit shines forth, indominable. Beyond all religion or creed or specific moral code, something deep and nameless and ancient, something warm and wonderful.

"unfathomable compassion" among man -- to the very end.

reply to post by silent thunder

thanks, that is a really great quote. why no responses?

i envisioned similar things, like humans scrambling at the last minute to make up for all the suffering we've caused. perhaps it's so powerful because we're engrained with some sort of primitive/spiritual knowledge that we're essentially all we have.

what's really interesting about this quote is that the origin of it is not absolutely certain:

(excerpt from an essay by donald m. fiene)

" 'In 1975 Vonnegut's son Mark published a book called "Eden Express," about his experiences as a sufferer from schizophrenia. At one point he records a conversation that he imagines he had with his father just after being released from a mental hospital. He tells his father that he has just begun reading "The Brothers Karamazov." His father says this was a mistake - but a beautiful one. Then Vonnegut suggests to his son that he open the book at random. Mark writes: "I let the book (fall) open. About halfway down on the right-hand page, one sentence stood out, glowing, from the rest of the print: The end of time will be marked by acts of unfathomable compassion.' (Praeger, 1975, p. 176)

Who but Dostoevsky could have written these remarkable chiliastic lines? But I have never been able to find them in "The Brothers Karamazov." Dostoevsky scholars to whom I've appealed have suggested likely places to search - but to no avail. I had written to Mark Vonnegut on the matter, but he never answered - so that I was always half persuaded that the quote was simply made up, some kind of hallucination. Vonnegut himself assured me (just a week or two prior to my writing these lines, in May 1981) that his own role in his son's text was pure hallucination. He gave me Mark's telephone number and said to call him - which I did.

Young Vonnegut has now completed his medical degree at Harvard University and is working as an intern. He no longer suffers from hallucinations. Furthermore, he can distinguish between hallucination and reality when recalling his schizophrenic past. And he swears that the quote from Dostoevsky is something he read; he did not make it up. He admits that his father was not present physically when "The Brothers Karamazov" fell open to the fateful page. He can no longer recall the edition or the translator, but the page itself (as described in the passage quoted above) is vivid in his memory. And he is convinced that the moment when Dostoevsky's prophetic words leaped out at him marked the turning point in his recovery from mental illness."

- another dostoevsky quote i enjoy:
"The more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity."


[edit on 8-8-2008 by vishudda]

[edit on 8-8-2008 by vishudda]

The end of ATS will be marked by feelings of unfathomable compassion.

I love you all.

a reply to: silent thunder
The Only Compassion.