In Russian, сострадание (sostradanie), "compassion" (our translation), joins со-, "with," and страдание, "suffering": to suffer together. The book uses the word when it speaks in general or when someone refuses it: the portrait awakens compassion in whoever looks at it, compassion is for the prince the main law and perhaps the only law of the existence of all humanity, and Nastasya, in his view, does not want haughty compassion from anyone.
Where It Appears
Quotes
Compassion is the main law and, perhaps, the only law of the existence of all humanity.