Schopenhauer

If the immediate and direct purpose of our life is not suffering then our existence is the most ill-adapted to its purpose in the world: for it is absurd to suppose that the endless affliction in which the world is everywhere full, and which arises out of the need and distress pertaining essentially to life, should be purposeless and accidental. Each individual misfortune, to be sure, seems a spectacular occurence; but misfortune in general is the rule.

Isaiah LIII., 7. / Acts VIII., 32.

"Sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur, et quasi agnus coram tondente se obmutescet et non aperiet os suum."

["He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."]

Brothers Karamazov

"Oh, with my pathetic, earthly Euclidean mind, I know only that there is suffering, that none are to blame, that all things flow and finds its level - but that is all Euclidean gibberish, of course I know that, and of course I cannot consent to live by it! What do I care that none are to blame and that I know it - I need retribution, otherwise I will destroy myself. And not retribution somewhere and sometime in infinity, but here and now, on earth, so that I see it myself. I have believed, and want to see for myself, and if I am dead by that time let them resurrect me, because it will be too unfair if it all takes place without me. Is it possible that I've suffered so that I, together with my evil deeds and sufferings, should be manure for someone's future harmony? I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion, and the murdered man rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when everyone suddenly finds out what it was all for."

- Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

"What can I tell you? I've known Rodion for a year and a half: sullen, gloomy, arrogant, proud; recently (and maybe much earlier) insecure and hypchondriac. Magnanimous and kind. Doesn't like voicing his feelings, and would rather do something cruel than speak his heart out in words. At times, however, he's not hypochondriac at all, but just inhumanly cold and callous, as if there were really two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other. At times he's terribly taciturn! He's always in a hurry, always too busy, yet he lies there doing nothing. Not given to mockery, and not because he lacks sharpness but as if he had no time for such trifles. Never hears people out to the end. Is never interested in what interests everyone else at a given moment. Sets a terribly high value on himself and, it seems, not without a certain justification. Well, what else? . . . "

- Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin