How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph). We used Constance Garnett's translation.
Quote #4
They say that Cleopatra (excuse an instance from Roman history) was fond of sticking gold pins into her slave-girls' breasts and derived gratification from their screams and writhings. (1.7.1)
The Underground Man thinks that humans are not only masochistic (they take pleasure in their own suffering) but also sadistic (they take pleasure in the suffering of other people). Yikes.
Quote #5
Of course boredom may lead you to anything. It is boredom sets one sticking golden pins into people, but all that would not matter. What is bad (this is my comment again) is that I dare say people will be thankful for the gold pins then. (1.7.2)
Previously, the Underground Man has offered suffering as the means to prove free will. But here, he offers it as an alternative to boredom.
Quote #6
Man likes to make roads and to create, that is a fact beyond dispute. But why has he such a passionate love for destruction and chaos also? Tell me that! But on that point I want to say a couple of words myself. May it not be that he loves chaos and destruction (there can be no disputing that he does sometimes love it) because he is instinctively afraid of attaining his object and completing the edifice he is constructing? (1.9.1)
This is a great explanation for why the Underground man cannot bring himself to finish his Notes.