The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

The passage attacks a modern, consumerist notion of “freedom” defined as the unlimited satisfaction and expansion of desires. Dostoyevsky’s point is that when appetite becomes the highest good, it corrodes social bonds and moral responsibility: the wealthy, insulated by abundance, drift into spiritual emptiness (“isolation”) and despair; the poor, confronted with unattainable models of consumption, are driven toward resentment and violence. The quote reflects his recurring critique of materialism and utilitarian social theories—ideas he saw as reducing human beings to economic wants and ignoring conscience, compassion, and the need for transcendent meaning.