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I believe that this derives, via a game of whispers, from a line in The Idiot, where Muishkin says:

Ailleurs il [Muichkine] dira:† «Je crains de n’être pas digne de ma souffrance.» Et cent autres semblables.

In another place he [Muishkin] says: “I am afraid I am not accounted worthy of my sufferings.” There are hundreds of other sayings all in the same strain.

_{Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1886). Le roman russe, p. 259. Paris: Plon. Translated by H. A. Sawyer (1913). The Russian Novel, p. 253. London: Chapman and Hall.}

_{† Muishkin’s name was last mentioned by de Vogüé on page 258, so if Brandes had been relying on Le roman russe, it would have been tricky to figure out who was speaking in the quoted line, and so he might have written “Eine Person” to avoid getting it wrong.}

So, in Russian, Muishkin’s line had the temporizing phrase, “а за то” (but for that). In de Vogüé’s translation, this became “je crains” (I fear), a conventional piece of politeness, not an actual expression of fear. In Brandes this became “Ich fürchte nur” (I just fear), the phrasing of which was ambiguous between conventional politeness and literal fear. And in Frankl this became “Ich fürchte nur eines” (I fear only one thing), resolving the ambiguity in the wrong, but more dramatic and interesting, direction.

I believe that this derives, via a game of whispers, from a line in The Idiot, where Ippolit Terentyev says:

Ailleurs il dira:† «Je crains de n’être pas digne de ma souffrance.» Et cent autres semblables.

In another place he says: “I am afraid I am not accounted worthy of my sufferings.” There are hundreds of other sayings all in the same strain.

_{Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1886). Le roman russe, p. 259. Paris: Plon. Translated by H. A. Sawyer (1913). The Russian Novel, p. 253. London: Chapman and Hall.}

_{† De Vogüé does not name the character, and the last name mentioned was Myshkin on page 258, so if Brandes had been relying on Le roman russe, it would have been tricky to figure out who was speaking in the quoted line, and so he might have written “Eine Person” to avoid getting it wrong.}

So, in Russian, the line had the temporizing phrase, “а за то” (but for that). In de Vogüé’s translation, this became “je crains” (I fear), a conventional piece of politeness, not an actual expression of fear. In Brandes this became “Ich fürchte nur” (I just fear), the phrasing of which was ambiguous between conventional politeness and literal fear. And in Frankl this became “Ich fürchte nur eines” (I fear only one thing), resolving the ambiguity in the wrong, but more dramatic and interesting, direction.

Ailleurs il [Muichkine] dira: «Je crains de n’être pas digne de ma souffrance.» Et cent autres semblables.

In another place he [Muishkin] says: “I am afraid I am not accounted worthy of my sufferings.” There are hundreds of other sayings all in the same strain.

_{Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1886). Le roman russe, p. 259. Paris: Plon. Translated by H. A. Sawyer (1913). The Russian Novel, p. 253. London: Chapman and Hall.}

Ailleurs il [Muichkine] dira:† «Je crains de n’être pas digne de ma souffrance.» Et cent autres semblables.

In another place he [Muishkin] says: “I am afraid I am not accounted worthy of my sufferings.” There are hundreds of other sayings all in the same strain.

_{Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé (1886). Le roman russe, p. 259. Paris: Plon. Translated by H. A. Sawyer (1913). The Russian Novel, p. 253. London: Chapman and Hall.}

_{† Muishkin’s name was last mentioned by de Vogüé on page 258, so if Brandes had been relying on Le roman russe, it would have been tricky to figure out who was speaking in the quoted line, and so he might have written “Eine Person” to avoid getting it wrong.}

This does not correspond closely to the German translation of The Idiot, where the line is:

»Nein, weil ich meines Leidens nicht würdig bin.«

_{Fyodor Dostoevsky (1869). Der Idiot, volume 3, p. 259. Translated by H. Köhl (1921). Leipzig: Insel.}

Frankl’s version is identical to Brandes’ version except for the addition of “eines” after “nur”, likely in an attempt to disambiguate the wording. But where did Brandes get his translation from? In 1900 he could not have read the H. Köhl translation (published 1921). A plausible source for Brandes is a monograph on the Russian novel by Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, who quoted the line in French translation:

So, in de Vogüé’s translation, “je crains” (I fear) was a conventional piece of politeness, and not an actual expression of fear. In Brandes this became “Ich fürchte nur” (I just fear), the phrasing of which was ambiguous between conventional politeness and literal fear. And in Frankl this became “Ich fürchte nur eines” (I fear only one thing), resolving the ambiguity in the wrong, but more dramatic and interesting, direction.

This does not correspond closely to the published German translations of The Idiot:

Frankl’s version is identical to Brandes’ version except for the addition of “eines” after “nur”, likely in an attempt to disambiguate the wording. But where did Brandes get his translation from? A plausible source is a monograph on the Russian novel by Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, who quoted the line in French translation:

So, in Russian, Muishkin’s line had the temporizing phrase, “а за то” (but for that). In de Vogüé’s translation, this became “je crains” (I fear), a conventional piece of politeness, not an actual expression of fear. In Brandes this became “Ich fürchte nur” (I just fear), the phrasing of which was ambiguous between conventional politeness and literal fear. And in Frankl this became “Ich fürchte nur eines” (I fear only one thing), resolving the ambiguity in the wrong, but more dramatic and interesting, direction.