STYÓPA. Well, I'll hold my tongue.
TÓNYA. It is a terrible problem; it is the problem of our day; and we should not be afraid of it, but look it straight in the face, in order to solve it.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. We cannot wait for the problem to be solved by public measures. Every one of us must die—if not to-day, then to-morrow. How can I live without suffering from this internal discord?
BORÍS. Of course there is only one way; that is, not to take part in it at all.
NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Well, forgive me if I have hurt you. I could not help saying what I felt. [Exit].
STYÓPA. Not take part in it? But our whole life is bound up with it.
BORÍS. That is why he says that the first step is to possess no property; to change our whole way of life and live so as not to be served by others but to serve others.
TÓNYA. Well, I see you have quite gone over to Nicholas Ivánovich's side.
BORÍS. Yes, I now understand it for the first time—after what I saw in the village.… You need only take off the spectacles through which we are accustomed to look at the life of the people, to realise at once the connection between their sufferings and our pleasures—that is enough!
MITROFÁN ERMÍLYCH. Yes, but the remedy does not consist in ruining one's own life.