Ivan has maintained that people bear no responsibility for their wishes— “who has not the right to wish?”—a position that directly contradicts the Sermon on the Mount, which deems not just bad actions but also unworthy desires sinful. Dostoevsky has constructed a plot showing just why the Gospel is psychologically correct. Most evil happens not because supremely evil people actively create it but because ordinary people like ourselves wish it and let it happen. So long as one retains plausible deniability to oneself, self- deception offers an alibi.
–Gary Saul Morson, Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions And Why Their Answers Matter
