All is in a man’s hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that’s an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most…. But I am talking too much. It’s because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.
This is our first deep look into Raskolnikov’s mind. He frames fear as the force that keeps people from acting. He senses his own talk is a cover for inaction. The “new word” line names the risk of originality in a rigid society. He’s both mocking and diagnosing himself. The insight is sharp, but he still can’t move with clean purpose. The gap between knowing and doing becomes the book’s engine.