I will pull at the bell-ropes until they toll for my own requiem!" "Alas! We could do nothing but assent.

We applauded our teacher and with what warmth, indeed! And, after all, my friends, don't we still hear to-day, every hour, at every step, the same "charming," "clever," "liberal," old Russian nonsense?
Our teacher believed in God.
"I can't understand why they make me out an infidel here," he used to say sometimes.

"I believe in God, _mais distinguons_, I believe in Him as a Being who is conscious of Himself in me only.

I cannot believe as my Nastasya (the servant) or like some country gentleman who believes 'to be on the safe side,' or like our dear Shatov--but no, Shatov doesn't come into it.

Shatov believes 'on principle,' like a Moscow Slavophil.
As for Christianity, for all my genuine respect for it, I'm not a Christian.