Fyodor Quotes

But again the eternal question - what need is there of my humility? Can't I simply be devoured without being expected to praise what devours me? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared. And it was after that that I found out the truth . I learnt the truth last November on the third of November, to be precise and I remember every instant since. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

It must be the top drawer," he reflected. "So she carries the keys in a pocket on the right. All in one bunch on a steel ring ... . And there's one key there, three times as big as all the others, with deep notches; that can't be the key of the chest of drawers ... then there must be some other chest or strong-box ... that's worth knowing. Strong-boxes always have keys like that ... but how degrading it all is. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Then the great hour struck, and every man showed himself in his true colors. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Finally, I couldn't imagine how I could live without books, and I stopped dreaming about marrying that Chinese prince ... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It wasn't you I was bowing to, but the whole of human suffering. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I am an inveterate buffoon, and been from birth up, your reverence, it's as though it were a craze in me. I dare say it's a devil within me. But only a little one. A more serious one would have chosen another lodging. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Oh, you may be sure that Columbus was happy not when he had discovered America, but when he was discovering it. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Listen," she said taking my hand. "Tell me: you wouldn't have behaved like this, would you? You would not have abandoned a girl who had come to you of herself, you would not have thrown into her face a shameless taunt at her weak foolish heart? You would have taken care of her? You would have realized that she was alone, that she did not know how to look after herself, that she could not guard herself from loving you, that it was not her fault, not her fault-that she had done nothing ... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Do you know I've been sitting here thinking to myself: that if I didn't believe in life, if I lost faith in the woman I love, lost faith in the order of things, were convinced in fact that everything is a disorderly, damnable, and perhaps devil-ridden chaos, if I were struck by every horror of man's disillusionment
still I should want to live. Having once tasted of the cup, I would not turn away from it till I had drained it! At thirty though, I shall be sure to leave the cup even if I've not emptied it, and turn away
where I don't know. But till I am thirty I know that my youth will triumph over everything
every disillusionment, every disgust with life. I've asked myself many times whether there is in the world any despair that could overcome this frantic thirst for life. And I've come to the conclusion that there isn't, that is until I am thirty. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Outwardly it's the truth, but inwardly, a lie! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

To celebrate my first hour of freedom. It's been going on nearly six months, and all at once I've thrown it off. I could never have guessed, even yesterday how easy it would be to put an end to it if I wanted. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…have you noticed, Rodion Romanovitch, that in our Petersburg circles, if two clever men meet who are not intimate, but respect each other, like you and me, it takes them half an hour before they can find a subject for conversation – they are dumb, they sit opposite each other and feel awkward? Everyone has subjects of conversation, ladies for instance…people in high society always have their subjects of conversation, c'est de rigueur; but people of the middle sort like us, thinking people that is, are always tongue-tied and awkward. What is the reason of it? Whether it is the lack of public interest, or whether it is we are so honest we don't want to deceive one another, I don't know. What do you think? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In the first place I spent most of my time at home, reading. I tried to stifle all that was continually seething within me by means of external impressions. And the only external means I had was reading. Reading, of course, was a great help--exciting me, giving me pleasure and pain. But at times it bored me fearfully. One longed for movement in spite of everything, and I plunged all at once into dark, underground, loathsome vice of the pettiest kind. My wretched passions were acute, smarting, from my continual, sickly irritability I had hysterical impulses, with tears and convulsions. I had no resource except reading, that is, there was nothing in my surroundings which I could respect and which attracted me. I was overwhelmed with depression, too; I had an hysterical craving for incongruity and for contrast, and so I took to vice. I have not said all this to justify myself .... But, no! I am lying. I did want to justify myself. I make that little observation for my own benefit, gentlemen. I don't want to lie. I vowed to myself I would not. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Yes, guilty.' It is better to let ten who are guilty go, than to punish one who is innocent - do you hear, do you hear this majestic voice from the last century of our glorious history? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He so respected his wife, and at times so feared her, that he actually, in fact, loved her ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Lamentations comfort only by lacerating the heart still more. Such grief does not desire consolation. It feeds on the sense of its hopelessness. Lamentations spring only from the constant craving to re-open the wound. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The more incompetent one feels, the more eager he is to fight. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Finally, if she were to accept this capital now, it was in no way as payment for her maidenly disgrace, for which she was not to blame, but simply as recompense for a corrupted destiny. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It is impossible to go on living when life assumes such grotesque and humiliating forms. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Karamazov, we love you! a voice, which seemed to be Kartashov's, exclaimed irrepressibly. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

To be Christians finally, it is our duty and obligation to foster only those convictions that are justified by reason and experience, that have passed through the crucible of analysis, in a word, to act sensibly and not senselessly as in dreams or delirium, so as not to bring harm to a man, so as not to torment and ruin a man. Then, then it will be a real Christian deed, not only a mystical one, but a sensible and truly philanthropic deed ... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Why is it that even the best of men always seem to hide something from other people and to keep something back? Why not say straight out what is in one's heart, when one knows that one is not speaking idly? As it is every one seems harsher than he really is, as though all were afraid of doing injustice to their feelings, by being too quick to express them. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Of course, a minute or so later I would realise wrathfully that it was all a lie, a revolting lie, an affected lie, that is, all this penitence, this emotion, these vows of reform. You will ask why did I worry myself with such antics: answer, because it was very dull to sit with one's hands folded, and so one began cutting capers. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Alas, I had always loved sorrow and grief, but only for myself, for myself; for them I wept in my pity. I stretched out my arms to them in my despair, accusing, cursing, and despising myself. I told them that I had done all this, I alone, that I had brought them corruption, contagion, and lies! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Listen, Kolya, by the way, you are going to be a very unhappy man in your life ... But on the whole you will bless life all the same. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Love God's people. Because we have come here and shut ourselves within these walls, we are no holier than those that are outside, but on the contrary, from the very fact of coming here, each of us has confessed to himself that he is worse than others, than all men on earth ... And the longer the monk lives in his seclusion, the more keenly he must recognise that. Else he would have no reason to come here. When he realises that he is not only worse than others, but that he is responsible to all men for all and everything, for all human sins, national and individual, only then the aim of seclusion is attained. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If and when you fall in love, may you be happy with her. I don't need to wish her anything, for she'll be happy with you. May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of one's life? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

For socialism is not merely the labour question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism to-day, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to Heaven from Earth but to set up Heaven on earth. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The whole point of my article is that in ancient times, during its first three centuries, Christianity was revealed on earth only by the Church, and was only the Church. But when the pagan Roman state desired to become Christian, it inevitably so happened that, having become Christian, it merely included the Church in itself, but itself continued to be, as before, a pagan state in a great many of its functions. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I've already warned you that the simplest ideas are the hardest to understand; I'll now add that they are also the hardest to explain. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

We can be enthused by - yes, that's right, enthused - by the noblest of ideals, but only on condition that we don't have to expend any effort, that we don't have to make any sacrifices, and above all on condition that the ideals can be achieved free, gratis, that we needn't pay anything. Paying is something we really resent; on the other hand, receiving, that's really up our street, and that goes for everything. Let's have every kind of blessing (nothing less will do, it must be every kind) and, whatever happens, let no one tell us what to do on any score, and then we too shall prove that we can be all sweetness and light. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In order to love simply, it is necessary to know how to show love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Advantage! What is advantage? And will you take it upon yourself to define with perfect accuracy in what the advantage of man consists? And what if it so happens that a man's advantage, SOMETIMES, not only may, but even must, consist in his desiring in certain cases what is harmful to himself and not advantageous. And if so, if there can be such a case, the whole principle falls into dust. What do you think
are there such cases? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The public generally can only ejaculate in amazement. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Not infrequently it turns out that a writer whom people have long credited with an extraordinary depth of ideas whom they have expected to exert an extraordinary and major influence on the direction of society, displays in the end such a watered down and minuscule version of his basic little idea that no one is even sorry that he's succeeded in writing himself out. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Hesitation, anxiety, the struggle between belief and disbelief - all that is sometimes such a torment for a conscientious man ... that it's better to hang oneself. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to the animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man is stupid, phenomenally stupid. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

If I had had the power to prevent my own birth I should certainly never have consented to accept existence under such ridiculous conditions. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In place of the clear and rigid ancient law, You [oh Lord] made man decide about good and evil for himself, with no other guidance than Your example. But did it never occur to You that man would disregard Your example, even question it, as well as Your truth, when he was subjected to so fearful a burden as freedom of choice? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

God has such gladness every time he sees from heaven that a sinner is praying to Him with all his heart, as a mother has when she sees the first smile on her baby's face. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It was natural enough that a warm, open, simple-hearted, honest giant like Razumihin, who had never seen any one like her and was not quite sober at the time, should lose his head immediately ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Prince Myshkin in The Idiot:
'He was thinking, incidentally, that there was a moment or two in his epileptic condition almost before the fit itself (if it occurred in waking hours) when suddenly amid the sadness, spiritual darkness and depression, his brain seemed to catch fire at brief moments ... His sensation of being alive and his awareness increased tenfold at those moments which flashed by like lightning. His mind and heart were flooded by a dazzling light. All his agitation, doubts and worries, seemed composed in a twinkling, culminating in a great calm, full of understanding ... but these moments, these glimmerings were still but a premonition of that final second (never more than a second) with which the seizure itself began. That second was, of course, unbearable. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Already at the age of sixteen I wondered at them gloomily; I was amazed at the pettiness of their minds, the stupidity of their activities, games, and conversations. They were so lacking in understanding of the most essential things, so devoid of interest in the most important, most remarkable matters, that I involuntarily began to look upon them as my inferiors. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Since I wasn't consulted at the time of the creation of the world, I reserve for myself the right to have my own opinion about it. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Gradually, however, i grew accustomed to this too. I grew accustomed to everything, that is, i didn't actually grow accustomed but somehow agreed of my own free will to grin and bear it. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man is a creature who gets used to everything, and that, I think, is the best definition of him. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Does it matter whether it was a dream or a reality, if the dream made known to me the truth? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

If we're to come to love a man, the man himself should stay hidden, because as soon as he shows his face
love vanishes. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

For the wagons that bear grain to the whole of mankind without any moral basis for their action may most cold-bloodedly exclude an important part of mankind from the enjoyment of what they bear, something that has already happened ... ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And if there's love, you can do without happiness too. Even with sorrow, life is sweet. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Money is the honey of humanity. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And what if, besides love, there can be no respect either, if on the contrary there is already loathing, contempt, revulsion - what then? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

But I ask again, are there many like Thee? And could thou believe for one moment that men, too, could face such a temptation? Is the nature of men such, that they can reject miracles and at the great moments of their life, the moments of their deepest, most agonizing spiritual difficulties, cling only to the free verdict of their heart? ... and thou didst hope that man, following Thee, would cling to god and not ask for a miracle. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

By interpreting freedom as the propagation and immediate gratification of needs, people distort their own nature, for they engender in themselves a multitude of pointless and foolish desires, habits, and incongruous stratagems. Their lives are motivated only by mutual envy, sensuality, and ostentation. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

acted, however, with great efficiency and self-sacrifice. But ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Let me be accursed. Let me be vile and base, only let me kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Now I'm living out my life in a corner, trying to console myself with the stupid, useless excuse that an intelligent man cannot turn himself into anything, that only a fool can make anything he wants out of himself. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Then Christ will say to us, 'Come you also! Come you drunkards! Come you weaklings! Come you depraved!' And he will say to us, 'Vile creatures, you in the image of the beast and you who bear his mark. All the same, you come too!' And the wise and prudent will say, 'Lord, why are you welcoming them? And he will say, 'O wise and prudent, I am welcoming them because not one of them has ever judged himself worthy. And he will stretch out his arms to us, and we shall fall at his feet, and burst into sobs, and then we shall understand everything, everything! Lord, your kingdom come! ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

And, beginning to grind his teeth again, Pyotr Petrovich admitted that he'd been a fool
but only to himself, of course. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

An angel in heaven I've told already; but I want to tell an angel on earth. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Above all, don't lie to yourself. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Snegiryov, fussing and bewildered, ran after the coffin in his old, short, almost summer coat, bare-headed, with his old wide-brimmed felt hat in his hand. He was in some sort of insoluble anxiety, now reaching out suddenly to support the head of the coffin, which only interfered with the bearers, then running alongside to see if he could find a place for himself. A flower fell on the snow, and he simply rushed to pick it up, as if God knows what might come from the loss of this flower. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If anyone had told him at that moment that he had fallen in love, that he was passionately in love, he would have rejected the idea with surprise and perhaps with indignation. And if anyone had added that Aglaia's letter was a love-letter, arranging a tryst with a lover, he would have been hotly ashamed of such a man, and would perhaps have challenged him to a duel. All this was perfectly sincere, and he never once doubted it, or admitted the slightest 'double' thought of a possibility of the girl's loving him or even of his loving her. He would have been ashamed of such an idea. The possibility of love for him, 'for such a man as he was,' he would have looked upon as a monstrous thing. He fancied that, if it really meant anything, it was only mischief on her part. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Here, perhaps, is the only man in the world who, were you to leave him alone and without money on the square of some unknown city with a population of a million, would not perish, would not die of cold and hunger, for he would immediately be fed and immediately be taken care of, and if no one else took care of him, he would immediately take care of himself, and it would cost him no effort, and no humiliation, and he would be no burden to those who took care of him, perhaps, on the contrary, they would consider it a pleasure. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If it could come about that each of us were to describe his innermost secrets –secrets which one would hesitate to tell not only to people at large, but even to one's closest friends, nay, to fear to admit even to one's own self - the world would be filled with such a stench that each one of us would choke to death. That's why, speaking in parenthesis, all our social conventions and niceties are so beneficial. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man is an enigma. This enigma must be solved, and if you spend all your life at it, don't say you have wasted your time; I occupy myself with this enigma because I wish to be a man. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Well, you may abuse me, be angry with me if you like," Porfiry Petrovitch began again, "but I can't resist. Allow me one little question (I know I am troubling you). There is just one little notion I want to express, simply that I may not forget it. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

There is a line in everything which it is dangerous to overstep; and when it has been overstepped, there is no return. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A dream is a strange thing. Pictures appear with terrifying clarity, the minutest details engraved like pieces of jewelry, and yet we leap unawares through huge abysses of time and space. Dreams seem to be controlled by wish rather than reason, the heart rather than the head–and yet, what clever, tricky convolutions my reason sometimes makes while I'm asleep! Things quite beyond comprehension happen to reason in dreams! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The consciousness of life is higher than life. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

She is here, near my heart again!' he cried. 'Oh Lord, I thank Thee for all, for all, for Thy wrath and for Thy mercy! ... And for Thy sun which is shining upon us again after the storm! For all this minute I thank Thee! Oh, we may be insulted and humiliated, but we're together again, and now the proud and haughty who have insulted and humiliated us may triumph! Let them throw stones at us! Have no fear, Natasha ... We will go hand in hand and I will say to them, 'This is my darling, this is my beloved daughter, my innocent daughter whom you have insulted and humiliated, but whom I love and bless for ever and ever! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Flakes. I was exhausted, shattered, in bewilderment. But behind the bewilderment the truth was ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Everywhere I am the object of an unbelievable esteem, the interest in me is, quite simply, tremendous. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

The more you succeed in loving, the more you'll be convinced at the existence of God and the immortality of your soul. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

You will see great sorrow, and in that sorrow you will be happy. This is my last message to you: in sorrow seek happiness. Work, work unceasingly. Remember my words, for although I shall talk with you again, not only my days but my hours are numbered. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

love equates people ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Every decent man of our time is and is bound to be a coward and a slave. This is his normal condition. I am deeply convinced of that. This is how he is constituted, and this is what he is meant to be. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

And so in that very shame I suddenly begin a hymn. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A condemned man who, at the hour of death, says or thinks that if the alternative were offered him of existing somewhere, on a height of rock or some narrow elevation, where only his two feet could stand, and round about him the ocean, perpetual gloom, perpetual solitude, perpetual storm, to remain there standing on a yard of surface for a lifetime, a thousand years, eternity! - rather would he live thus than die at once? Only live, live, live! - no matter how, only live! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

After all, man may be fond not only of
well-being. Perhaps he is just as fond
of suffering? Perhaps suffering is just
as much in his interest as well-being? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

We are full of hatred, my girl, you and I! We are both full of hatred! As though we could forgive on another! Save him, and I'll worship you all my life. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What is hell? ... The suffering that comes from the consciousness that one is no longer able to love. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I suddenly felt that it was all the same to me whether the world existed or whether there had never been anything at all: I began to feel with all my being that there was nothing existing. At first I fancied that many things had existed in the past, but afterwards I guessed that there never had been anything in the past either, but that it had only seemed so for some reason. Little by little I guessed that there would be nothing in the future either. Then I left off being angry with people and almost ceased to notice them. Indeed this showed itself even in the pettiest trifles: I used, for instance, to knock against people in the street. And not so much from being lost in thought: what had I to think about? I had almost given up thinking by that time; nothing mattered to me. If at least I had solved my problems! Oh, I had not settled one of them, and how many there were! But I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Trifles, trifles are what matter! ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

He walked, looking about him angrily and distractedly. All his ideas now seemed to be circling round some single point, and he felt that there really was such a point, and that now, now, he was left facing that point - and for the first time, indeed, during the last two months. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He who masters the grey everyday is a hero. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

I think my liver hurts. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

By the way, a Bulgarian I met lately in Moscow," Ivan went on, seeming not to hear his brother's words, "told me about the crimes committed by Turks and Circassians in all parts of Bulgaria through fear of a general rising of the Slavs. They burn villages, murder, outrage women and children, they nail their prisoners by the ears to the fences, leave them so till morning, and in the morning they hang them- all sorts of things you can't imagine. People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it.
These Turks took a pleasure in torturing children, -too; cutting the unborn child from the mothers womb, and tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mothers' eyes. Doing it before the mothers' eyes was what gave zest to the amusement. Here is another scene that I thought very interesting. Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion: they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains. A ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Yes, one day perhaps the leading intellects of Russia and of Europe will study the psychology of Russian crime, for the subject is worth it. But ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

after doing a good deed, assured me that all the credit belonged to me and that those many people who nowadays taught and preached that the individual good deed was of no significance were wrong. I was also very anxious to talk for a while. '"Whoever attacks individual 'charity'," I began, "attacks the nature of man and despises his personal dignity. But the organization of 'public charity' and the question of personal freedom are two different questions and are not mutually exclusive. Individual kindness will always remain, because it is a need of the personality, a living need for the direct influence of one personality on another. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When you're older, you will see yourself what significance age has upon convictions. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky