And to "CRIME & PUNISHMENT"...
"Raskolnikov lived his true life when he was lying on the
sofa in his room, deliberating not at all about the old woman,
nor even as to whether it is or is not permissible at the
will of one man to wipe from the face of the earth another,
unnecessary and harmful, man, but whether he ought to live
in Petersburg or not, whether he ought to accept money from
his mother or not, and on other questions not at all relating
to the old woman. And then -- in that region quite independent
of animal activities -- the question of whether he would or
would not kill the old woman was decided. The question was
decided... when he was doing nothing and was only thinking,
when only his consciousness was active: and in that consciousness
tiny, tiny alterations were taking place. It is at such times
that one needs the greatest clearness to decide correctly
the questions that have arisen, and it is just then that one
glass of beer, or one cigarette, may prevent the solution
of the question, may postpone the decision, stifle the voice
of conscience and prompt a decision of the question in favor
of the lower, animal nature -- as was the case with Raskolnikov.
Tiny, tiny alterations -- but on them depend the most immense
and terrible consequences." -- Leo Tolstoy on Dostoevsky's
Raskolnikov
Characterization of Porfiry Petrovitch.