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Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

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Famous Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

“I tell Thee that man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creatures is born. But only one who can appease their conscience can take over their freedom […] Instead of taking men's freedom from them, Thou didst make it greater than ever! Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil?”

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Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“And what's strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man.”

MenShouldIdeasWould BeStrangeBeastSavagesMarvelousViciousBrothers Karamazov
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
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“And why are you so firmly, so triumphantly, convinced that only the normal and the positive--in other words, only what is conducive to welfare--is for the advantage of man? Is not reason in error as regards advantage? Does not man, perhaps, love something besides well-being? Perhaps he is just as fond of suffering? Perhaps suffering is just as great a benefit to him as well-being? Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering, and that is a fact.”

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Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“I could not become anything; neither good nor bad; neither a scoundrel nor an honest man; neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.”

MenHonestFoolHeroIntelligentCornersBitterUselessConsolationInsectsHonest ManScoundrelsIntelligent ManTaunting
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“It sometimes happened that you might be familiar with a man for several years thinking he was a wild animal, and you would regard him with contempt. And then suddenly a moment would arrive when some uncontrollable impulse would lay his soul bare, and you would behold in it such riches, such sensitivity and warmth, such a vivid awareness of its own suffering and the suffering of others, that the scales would fall from your eyes and at first you would hardly be able to believe what you had seen and heard. The reverse also happens.”

ThinkingMenYearsFirstsBelieveSoulSometimesMomentsMightHappensEyeAbleSufferingFallAnimalHappenedHeardAwarenessRegardLaysRichesScalesFamiliarImpulseWarmthContemptReverseSensitivityVividWild AnimalUncontrollableSuffering Of Others
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone else. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill--he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it.”

KnowsMenFeelsFirstsMayMadeSometimesLyingPleasureMountainCaughtPleasantInsultResentmentOffenseOffendedLiedExaggeratedInsultedPicturesqueEasily OffendedInsulted Him
Book:The Brothers Karamazov
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“Love is a teacher, but one must know how to acquire it, for it is difficult to acquire, it is dearly bought, by long work over a long time, for one ought to love not for a chance moment but for all time. Anyone, even a wicked man, can love by chance.”

KnowsMenLongMomentsDifficultChanceLove IsKnow HowTeacherOughtLong TimeAll TimeAcquireWickedWicked Man
Book:The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue
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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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“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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“‎Honoured sir, poverty is not a vice, that's a true saying. Yet I know too that drunkeness is not a virtue, and that's even truer. But beggary, honoured sir, beggary is a vice. In poverty you may still retain your innate nobility of soul, but in beggary--never--no one. For beggary a man is not chased out of human society with a stick, he is swept out with a broom, so as to make it as humiliating as possible; and quite right, too, forasmuch as in beggary as I am ready to be the first to humiliate myself.”

KnowsMenFirstsHumansMayStillsSoulPovertyVirtueReadySticksVicesNobilityInnateHuman SocietyHumiliatingHumiliateBroomsBeggary
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“And do you know, do you know that mankind can live without the Englishman, it can live without Germany, it can live only too well without the Russian man, it can live without science, without bread, and it only cannot live without beauty, for then there would be nothing at all to do in the world! The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here. Science itself would not stand for a minute without beauty”

KnowsMenWorldWellsWholeWould BeSecretMinutesMankindBreadGermanyDo You KnowEnglishmen
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“[to Jesus] You did not come down from the cross when they shouted to you, mocking and reviling you: "Come down from the cross and we will believe that it is you." You did not come down because, again, you did not want to enslave man by a miracle and thirsted for faith that is free, not miraculous...I swear, man is created weaker and baser than you thought him! How, how can he ever accomplish the same things as you? ...Respecting him less, you would have demanded less of him, and that would be closer to love, for his burden would be lighter.”

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Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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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.”

ThinkingMenLightTodayJoyCertainPleasureOne DayMercyDeedsNobleNeighborVainBoastIndulgeEnviousIndulge InGluttonyCoarseOstentationNoble Deeds
Book:The Brothers Karamazov
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