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Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

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Famous Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

“It seemed clear to me that life and the world somehow depended upon me now. I may almost say that the world now seemed created for me alone: if I shot myself the world would cease to be at least for me. I say nothing of its being likely that nothing will exist for anyone when I am gone, and that as soon as my consciousness is extinguished the whole world will vanish too and become void like a phantom , as a mere appurtenance of my consciousness, for possibly all this world and all these people are only me myself.”

PeopleIfsWorldMayWholeConsciousnessGoneClearThis WorldShotsMereCeaseWhole WorldVoidMe AlonePhantoms
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“Occasionally I was so much better that I could go out; but the streets used to put me in such a rage that I would lock myself up for days rather than go out, even if I were well enough to do so! I could not bear to see all those preoccupied, anxious-looking creatures continuously surging along the streets past me! Why are they always anxious? What is the meaning of their eternal care and worry? It is their wickedness, their perpetual detestable malice-that's what it is-they are all full of malice, malice!”

IfsWellsEnoughCarePastUsedWorryStreetsBearsCreaturesEternalRageAnxiousPerpetualLocksWickednessMaliceWhat Is The Meaning
Book:The Idiot: Easyread Large Edition
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“What can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? They have succeeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.”

IfsWorldJoyDesireHumanityGreaterObjectsHabitMassConcernSatisfyingIsolatedConsumerismBondageOverconsumption
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“For example, I'm terribly proud. I'm as mistrustful and as sensitive as a hunchback or a dwarf; but, in truth, I've experienced some moments when if someone had slapped my face, I might even have been grateful for it. I'm being serious. I probably would have been able to derive a peculiar sort of pleasure from it-the pleasure of despair, naturally, but the most intense pleasures occur in despair, especially when you're very acutely aware of the hopelessness of your own predicament.”

IfsHas BeensMomentsMightAbleFacesPleasureExampleSeriousProudDespairGratefulIntenseSensitivePeculiarHopelessnessDwarfsDwarvesPredicaments
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“We're always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that's all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can't help feeling that that's what it is.”

IfsThinkingKnowsLittlesI CanIdeasSometimesHelpingFeelingsHouseRoomsUnderstoodEternityCornersWhat IfVillageImmenseSpidersBathsAlways ThinkingCrime And Punishment
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“Ah, Father! That’s words and only words! Forgive! If he’d not been run over, he’d have come home today drunk and his only shirt dirty and in rags and he’d have fallen asleep like a log, and I should have been sousing and rinsing till daybreak, washing his rags and the children’s and then drying them by the window and as soon as it was daylight I should have been darning them. What’s the use of talking forgiveness! I have forgiven as it is!”

IfsShouldChildrenHas BeensUseHomeRunningTodayFatherTalkingWindowShould HaveForgivingDrunkDirtyFallenShirtsComing HomeForgivenShould Have BeenWashingDaylightRagsDaybreak
Book:Crime and Punishment
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“If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.”

IfsKnowsMenWayHumansWellsIdeasSoulWishResultsTalkingWatchesLaughingSeeingLaughterMovedSilentNobleBotherGet BetterGood ManGlimpseHuman SoulWeepingAnalyzingGood LaughHave A LaughSmile And LaughLaughs And SmilesHappiness And LaughterLaughter And JoyInspirational Laughter
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”

IfsMenLifeHeartMayBeautifulLeftMemoriesChildhoodOne DayInstrumentsSacredSalvationSavedCarrieGood MemoriesBest Education
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“He walked on without resting. He had a terrible longing for some distraction, but he did not know what to do, what to attempt. A new overwhelming sensation was gaining more and more mastery over him every moment; this was an immeasurable, almost physical, repulsion for everything surrounding him, an obstinate, malignant feeling of hatred. All who met him were loathsome to him - he loathed their faces, their movements, their gestures. If anyone had addressed him, he felt that he might have spat at him or bitten him... .”

IfsKnowsMomentsFeelingsMightFacesFeltMovementTerribleMetsHatredLongingSensationsOverwhelmingDistractionMasteryGesturesObstinateSpatsRepulsion
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain.”

IfsBelieveHas BeensSoulSelfRealityCertainGrowsPerfectDoubtLove YouStriveActiveYour SoulImmortalityNo DoubtNeighbourForgetfulnessSelf Forgetfulness
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”

IfsWorldLoveWholeLightLastsGrowsUnderstandingAnimalMysteryCreationUniversalPlantWhole WorldPerceiveSandRaysGrainLeafsAnimal LoveGrains Of SandGod's CreationRays Of LightMystery Of God
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“There is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas.”

IfsWritingYearsHumansImportantIdeasDiesLeftBrainForeverFiveGeniusSpringRemainsBottomCommunicateThirtyFive YearsVolumeEarnestExplainingHuman Thought
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.”

PeopleIfsWorldStillsLastsDifficultPleasureResultsProduceEasierNotesPleasantNeverthelessFlatteryExposureFractionsCandorCoarseDissonance
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once. Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!”

IfsThinkingYearsMayDiesHoursSpaceRoomsDarknessRocksThousandSolitudeOceanStandingEternityPunishmentLive LifeSquaresThousand YearsYardsEverlastingTempestCrime And PunishmentLedgesRaskolnikov
Book:The 10 Greatest Books of All Time
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“Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith. If the realist once believes, then he is bound by his very realism to admit the miraculous also.”

IfsBelieveDoeSpringMiracleBoundsRealismMiraculousRealist
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“Gentlemen, let us suppose that man is not stupid. (Indeed one cannot refuse to suppose that, if only from the one consideration, that, if man is stupid, then who is wise?) But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful! Phenomenally ungrateful. In fact, I believe that the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.”

IfsMenBelieveFactsI BelieveWiseStupidDefinitionsRefuseGentlemanConsiderationUngratefulNot Stupid
Book:White Nights and Other Stories
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“Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.”

IfsGivingFeelingsPrayerPrayingSincereForgetfulNew Feelings
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“Believe to the end, even if all men went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness.”

IfsMenBelieveEndsLeftLonelinessPraiseFaithfulOfferingPraise God
Book:The Greatest Works of Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment + The Brother's Karamazov + The Idiot + Notes from Underground + The Gambler + Demons (The Possessed / The Devils)
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“The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the miraculous also.”

IfsFactsAbilityMiracleSensesGenuineMiraculousRealistUnbelieversBrothers KaramazovFinding Strength
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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