Vagueness and objectless anxiety in the present, and in the future a continual sacrifice leading to nothing - that was all that lay before him. What had he to live for? What had he to look forward to? Why should he strive? To live in order to exist? Why, he had been ready a thousand times before to give up existence for the sake of an idea, for a hope, even for a fancy. Mere existence had always been too little for him; he had always wanted more. Perhaps it was just because of the strength of his desires that he had thought himself a man to whom more was permissible than to others. - Crime and Punishment

isn't it true how many of us think ourselves more worthy and deserving than others? is this a common phenomenon, of the human self; the fantasies and delusions......... or is it human nature? to be so base and vile and self-assuming that we place ourselves on a pedestal before the others in our own eyes?

but often....... it is this quest for greatness, for the massive, that crushes us, and disables us more than it aids us............ and deems us even lower than we were before...........