“Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.”
The thought notices how novelty can feel more threatening than familiar difficulty, but in the novel it belongs to Raskolnikov while he is approaching a contemplated crime, so it is not presented as generic motivational advice.
Source details
Crime and Punishment, Part I, Chapter I, printed page 2 / Wikisource scan leaf 34, Constance Garnett translation in the scan-backed 1917 Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction / P. F. Collier & Son edition, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #2554. Raskolnikov thinks “Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most” while walking toward the pawnbroker during his contemplated “rehearsal”; the line remains morally compromised fictional interior monologue rather than generic motivational advice.