Dostoevsky isn't merely saying that wisdom costs effort—he's insisting that genuine change requires *loss*, not just labor. The word "paid" suggests sacrifice of your former self, your comfortable certainties, your old way of seeing. When someone finally abandons a long-held belief (that they're unlovable, that their ambition is selfish, that trust is foolish), they don't simply add new knowledge; they undergo a small death. A woman who spends years recovering from perfectionism doesn't acquire self-compassion through a weekend seminar; she must grieve the identity that perfectionism gave her, and that grieving is the price Dostoevsky means.