Formerly (it had been so almost from childhood and increasingly so till his complete maturity) when he tried to do anything for the good of everybody, for humanity, for Russia, for the whole village, he had noticed that the thoughts of it were agreeable, but the activity itself was always unsatisfactory; there was no full assurance that the work was really necessary, and the activity itself, which at first seemed so great, ever lessened and lessened till it vanished.
En otros tiempos (es decir, en su infancia, y ahora estaba ya en plena madurez) cuando hacía o procuraba hacer algo que fuera un bien para el pueblo, para Rusia, a incluso para la Humanidad, Levin sentía que aquel impulso le llenaba de satisfacción; pero la misma actividad que antes le parecía tan grande, útil y hermosa, ahora se le figuraba empequeñecida y aun a punto de desaparecer.