00:00Hi, today I am going to read a beautiful excerpt from a beautiful book.
00:07This is The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
00:11He was a Russian writer known for his remarkable writing.
00:15In this particular excerpt, he talks about how we spend a great amount of time just thinking or being someplace else
00:25as we believe our false ideals and goals will bring us happiness.
00:31But Dostoevsky reminds us that living in the present moment may be the greatest favor we can do for ourselves.
00:41Here it goes.
00:44At the beginning, quite at the beginning, I had and I used to become very restless.
00:51I was continually thinking of the life I would lead.
00:57I wanted to know what life had in store for me.
01:00I was particularly restless at some moments.
01:05You know, there are such moments, especially in solitude.
01:09There was a small waterfall there.
01:12It fell from a height on the mountain.
01:14Such a tiny thread, almost perpendicular, forming, white and splashing.
01:22Though it fell from a great height, it didn't seem so high.
01:26It was a third of a mile away, but it only looked about 50 paces.
01:32I used to like listening to the sound of it at night.
01:35At such moments, I was sometimes overcome with great restlessness, sometimes too at midday.
01:44I wandered on the mountains and stood alone halfway up a mountain, surrounded by great ancient resinous pine trees.
01:53On the crest of the rock, an old medieval castle in ruins, a little village far, far below, scarcely visible, bright sunshine, blue sky, and the terrible stillness.
02:09At such times, I felt something was drawing me away, and I kept fancying that if I walked straight on, far, far away, and reached that line where sky and earth meet,
02:25there I should find the key to the mystery, there I should see a new life a thousand times richer and more turbulent than ours.
02:35I dreamed of some great town like Naples, full of palaces, noise, roar, life, and I dreamed of all sorts of things, indeed.
02:50But afterwards, I fancied one might find a wealth of life even in prison.
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