To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible punishment so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. The Brothers Karamazov, translated by David McDuff. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Mill, John Stuart. "The Contest in America." Essays on Equality, Law and Education. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, edited by John M. Robson. Vol. 21, Routledge, 2014.

Lincoln, Abraham. "Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Tolstoy, Leo. "Sevastopol in May." The Cossacks and Other Stories, translated by David McDuff and Paul Foote. Penguin Books, 2006.