Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes
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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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Killing myself was a matter of such indifference to me that I felt like waiting for a moment when it would make some difference.
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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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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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If it were considered desirable to destroy a human being, the only thing necessary would be to give his work a character of uselessness.
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The consciousness of life is higher than life.
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Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.
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It is not the real punishment. The only effectual one, the only deterrent and softening one, lies in the recognition of sin by conscience.
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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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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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...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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Lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth.
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I want to suffer so that I may love.
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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!
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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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Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart.
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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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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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I am crazy about mysterious things.
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That's just the point: an honest and sensitive man opens his heart, and the man of business goes on eating - and then he eats you up.
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Be the sun and all will see you.
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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.