How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Well, then—they were all children there, and I was always among children and only with children. They were the children of the village in which I lived, and they went to the school there—all of them. […] I passed all four years of my life there among them. I wished for nothing better; I used to tell them everything and hid nothing from them. Their fathers and relations were very angry with me, because the children could do nothing without me at last, and used to throng after me at all times. The schoolmaster was my greatest enemy in the end! I had many enemies, and all because of the children. Even Schneider reproached me. What were they afraid of? One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand!" (1.6.2)
What do you think about Myshkin's truth-telling policy when it comes to the children? We are definitely supposed to see a parallel with Jesus and his disciples facing the hostile authority figures around them…but dude, these are little kids. Aren't they supposed to be protected from the world and its horrors?
Quote #5
"Are you going to cross my path for ever, damn you!" cried Ganya; and, loosening his hold on Varya, he slapped the prince's face with all his force.
Exclamations of horror arose on all sides. The prince grew pale as death; he gazed into Ganya's eyes with a strange, wild, reproachful look; his lips trembled and vainly endeavoured to form some words; then his mouth twisted into an incongruous smile.
"Very well—never mind about me; but I shall not allow you to strike her!" he said, at last, quietly. Then, suddenly, he could bear it no longer, and covering his face with his hands, turned to the wall, and murmured in broken accents:
"Oh! how ashamed you will be of this afterwards!" (1.10.51-54)
A pretty great example of the prince's extreme empathy here. He's the one who is hurt, but all he can do is immediately put himself in Ganya's shoes. The emotion that overcomes him is pity for Ganya's embarrassment and not—we don't know—anger at being slapped in the face.
Quote #6
"Now, prince, what do you think?—are there not far more thieves than honest men in this world? Don't you think we may say there does not exist a single person so honest that he has never stolen anything whatever in his life?" [said Ferdishenko.]
"What a silly idea," said the actress. "Of course it is not the case. I have never stolen anything, for one."
"H'm! very well, Daria Alexeyevna; you have not stolen anything—agreed. But how about the prince, now—look how he is blushing!"
"I think you are partially right, but you exaggerate," said the prince, who had certainly blushed up, of a sudden, for some reason or other. […]"Immediately, immediately! But if even the prince admits it, for I maintain that what the prince has said is tantamount to an admission, would someone else say (naming no names) if he ever wanted to tell the truth?" (1.14.1-6)
This is a pretty direct reference to Jesus's defense of the adulterous woman from being stoned —"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone"—turned totally on its head. What on earth could Myshkin have stolen?