"'But this is just as true today,' the elder [Zosima] suddenly spoke out, and they all immediately turned to him. 'If Christ's Church did not exist today, there would be nothing to restrain man from committing crimes, for there would be no real punishment...I'm not talking of 'mechanical' punishment, such as was described a moment ago, which in most cases only hardens a criminal, but of real punishment, the only effective one, that people fear and that can bring peace -- the awareness of one's own conscience.'"
-- Book II, Chapter 5, The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Andrew H. MacAndrew).
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