Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“why had he happened to hear such a discussion and such ideas at the very moment when his own brain was just conceiving … the very same ideas? And why, just at the moment when he had brought away the embryo of his idea from the old woman had he dropped at once upon a conversation about her? This coincidence always seemed strange to him. This trivial talk in a tavern had an immense influence on him in his later action; as though there had really been in it something preordained, some guiding hint…”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“ولعلها كانت تنقاد "لزهو الفقراء" الخاص بهم، والذي يدفع كثيراً من البؤساء بمناسبة بعض الاحتفالات التي لا يستطيعون التملص منها بسبب عاداتنا المتأصلة، إلى أن يبذلوا آخر ما يملكون من قوى وآخر ما يملكون من مال، حتى لا يكونوا "دون الآخرين" وحتى لا "يحكم عليهم" أولئك الآخرون.”
“You have long needed a change of air. Suffering, too, is a good thing. Suffer! Maybe Nikolay is right in wanting to suffer. I know you don't believe in it--but don't be over-wise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don't be afraid--the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“Perezvon (the dog) ran about in the wildest spirits, sniffing about first one side, then the other. When he met other dogs they zealously smelt each other over according to the rules of canine etiquette.”
topics: humor
“-Je pense qu'on doit aimer la vie par-dessus tout. -Aimer la vie, plutôt que le sens de la vie? -Certainement. L'aimer avant de raisonner, sans logique, comme tu dis; alors seulement on en comprendra le sens.”
“Thou wouldst not enslave man by a miracle, and didst crave faith given freely, not based on miracle. Thou didst crave for free love and not the base raptures of the slave before the might that has overawed him for ever.”
topics: faith
“He seemed, indeed, to accept everything without the least condemnation though often grieving bitterly.”
“I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy.”
“There is a good deal of posturing here, of romantic frenzy, of wild Karamazovian unrestraint and sentimentality—yes, and also something else, gentlemen of the jury, something that cries out in the soul, that throbs incessantly in his mind, and poisons his heart unto death; this something is conscience, gentlemen of the jury, the judgment, the terrible pangs of conscience!”
“Es una mujer que anhela sufrir por alguien, y si se la privase de este sufrimiento, sería capaz, tal vez, de arrojarse por una ventana.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crimen y castigo
“Kto sumienie posiada, niech cierpi, skoro zdał sobie sprawę z pomyłki. Będzie mu to karą – obok katorgi.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“Why, my dear fellow, you may drive yourself into delirium if you have the impulse to work upon your nerves, to go ringing bells at night and asking about blood!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“Man is a vile creature!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“He did not know that the new life would not be given him for nothing, that he would have to pay dearly for it, that it would cost him great striving, great suffering. But that is the beginning of a new story - the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Crime and Punishment
“What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind - then all the rest is prejudice, simply aritificial terrors and there are no barriers and it's all as it should be.”
“He thought of nothing, desired nothing, except not to lag behind and to do the best job he could.”
“I would give away all this superstellar life, all the ranks and honours, simply to be transformed into the soul of a merchant’s wife weighing eighteen stone and set candles at God’s shrine”
“He saw that the inmost recesses of her soul, that had always hitherto lain open before him, were closed against him.”
“A ako patnje djece samo popunjavaju onu količinu patnje koja je bila potrebna da se otkupi istina, onda unaprijed tvrdim da sva istina ne vrijedi toga...Ja ne želim harmoniju, ne želim je iz ljubavi prema čovječanstvu. Radije ću ostati sa svojim neosvećenim patnjama. Radije ću ostati na svojoj neosvećenoj patnji i na svom neiskaljenom ogorčenju, makar i ne bio u pravu. Pa i previsoku su cijenu odredili toj harmoniji, nije za naš džep tolika ulaznica. I zato hitam da vratim svoju ulaznicu. Ako sam pošten čovjek, dužan sam je što prije vratiti. To upravo i činim. Nije da ja Boga ne priznajem, Aljoša, nego mu samo najponiznije vraćam ulaznicu.”
topics: philosophy-literature
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Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, perhaps most recognized today for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for existentialism ever written."
His tombstone reads "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." from John 12:24, which is also the epigraph of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.