Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes
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They tease me now, telling me it was only a dream. But does it matter whether it was a dream or reality, if the dream made known to me the truth?
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Humanity can live without science, it can live without bread, but it cannot live without beauty. Without beauty, there would be nothing left to do in this life. Here the secret lies. Here lies the entire story.
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Money is coined liberty.
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The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.
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Do you think it is a vain hope that one day man will find joy in noble deeds of light and mercy, rather than in the coarse pleasures he indulges in today -- gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting, and envious vying with his neighbor? I am certain this is not a vain hope and that the day will come soon.
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Do you know that ages will pass and mankind will proclaim in its wisdom and science that there is no crime and, therefore no sin, but that there are only hungry people. 'Feed them first and then demand virtue of them!' - that is what they will inscribe on their banner which they will raise against you and which will destroy your temple.
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For the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.
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Everywhere I am the object of an unbelievable esteem, the interest in me is, quite simply, tremendous.
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There is no object on earth which cannot be looked at from a cosmic point of view.
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For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?
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But how could you live and have no story to tell?
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I want peace; yes, I'd sell the whole world for a farthing, straight off, so long as I was left in peace. Is the world to go to pot, or am I to go without my tea? I say that the world may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea. Did you know that, or not? Well, anyway, I know that I am a blackguard, a scoundrel, an egoist, a sluggard.
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In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.
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In sinning, each man sins against all, and each man is at least partly guilt for another's sin. There is no isolated sin.
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You ache with it all; and the more mysterious it is, the more you ache.
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Man is a creative animal, doomed to strive toward a goal, engaged in full-time engineering.
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I punish myself for my whole life, my whole life I punish.
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Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself: what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.
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How good life is when one does something good and just!
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But men love abstract reasoning and neat systematization so much that they think nothing of distorting the truth, closing their eyes and ears to contrary evidence to preserve their logical constructions.
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Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.
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The soul is healed by being with children.
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...it all, maybe, most likely, indeed, might turn out for the best.
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I never have frustrations. The reason is to wit: Of at first I don't succeed, I quit!