Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes
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To be too conscious is an illness. A real thorough going illness.
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To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing is simpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in that belief without the slightest misgiving.
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And the more I drink the more I feel it. That's why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.... I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!
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What is hell?...The suffering that comes from the consciousness that one is no longer able to love.
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It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?
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Oh, if only I did nothing simply as a result of laziness.
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The consciousness of life is higher than life.
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Money is coined liberty, and so it is ten times dearer to a man who is deprived of freedom. If money is jingling in his pocket, he is half consoled, even though he cannot spend it.
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It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
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Actions are sometimes performed in a masterly and most cunning way, while the direction of the actions is deranged and dependent on various morbid impressions - it's like a dream.
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Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us!
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What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
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It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.
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Lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth.
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Let it not be a beautiful face,' I thought, 'but to make up for that, let it be a noble, an expressive, and, above all, an extremely intelligent one.
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Two times two will be four even without my will. Is that what you call man's free will?
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Happiness lies not in happiness but only in the attempt to achieve it.
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The most offensive is not their lying - one can always forgive lying - lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth - what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying.
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I wanted to pray for an hour, but I keep thinking and thinking, and always sick thoughts, and my head aches - what is the use of praying? - it's only a sin! It is strange, too, that I am not sleepy: in great, too great sorrow, after the first outbursts one is always sleepy. Men condemned to death, they say, sleep very soundly on the last night. And so it must be, it si the law of nature, otherwise their strength would not hold out... I lay down on the sofa but I did not sleep...
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...chance may do anything.
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Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it - that is what you must do.
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One circumstance tormented me then: Namely, that no one else was like me, and I was like no one else. I am only one, and they are all.
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Pray to God for gladness. Be glad as children, as the birds of heaven. And let not the sin of men confound you in your doings. Fear not that it will wear away your work and hinder its being accomplished. Do not say, 'Sin is mighty, wickedness is mighty, evil environment is mighty, and we are lonely and helpless, and evil environment is wearing us away and hindering our good work from being done.' Fly from that dejection, children!
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Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!