You will say that the cause of morality gains nothing by this book. I beg your pardon. People have been surfeited with sweetmeats and their digestion has been ruined: bitter medicines, sharp truths, are therefore necessary. This must not, however, be taken to mean that the author has ever proudly dreamed of becoming a reformer of human vices. Heaven keep him from such im- pertinence! He has simply found it entertaining to depict a man, such as he considers to be typical of the present day and such as he has often met in real life -- too often, indeed, unfortunately both for the author himself and for you. Suffice it that the disease has been pointed out: how it is to be cured -- God alone knows!
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Hero of Our Time, by Lermontov