Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Russia. I speak not only to fathers here, but to all fathers I cry out: ‘Fathers, provoke not your children!’ Let us first fulfill Christ’s commandment ourselves, and only then let us expect the same of our children.”

“Essentially, this is undoubtedly what had to happen. But Rome as a state retained too much of pagan civilization and wisdom—for example, the very aims and basic principles of the state. Whereas Christ’s Church, having entered the state, no doubt could give up none of its own basic principles, of that rock on which it stood, and could pursue none but its own aims, once firmly established and shown to it by the Lord himself, among which was the transforming of the whole world, and therefore of the whole ancient pagan state, into the Church. Thus (that is, for future purposes), it is not the Church that should seek a definite place for itself in the state, like ‘any social organization’ or ‘organization of men for religious purposes’ (as the author I was objecting to refers to the Church), but, on the contrary, every earthly state must eventually be wholly transformed into the Church and become nothing else but the Church, rejecting whichever of its aims are incompatible with those of the Church. And all of this will in no way demean it, will take away neither its honor nor its glory as a great state, nor the glory of its rulers, but will only turn it from a false, still pagan and erroneous path, onto the right and true path that alone leads to eternal goals.”

“You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home.”

“¿Olvidaste que el hombre prefiere la paz e incluso la muerte a la libertad para discernir el bien y el mal? No hay nada más seductor para el hombre que el libre albedrío, pero también nada más doloroso. En vez de principios sólidos que tranquilizaran para siempre la conciencia humana, ofreciste nociones vagas, extrañas, enigmáticas, algo que superaba las posibilidades de los hombres. Procediste, pues, como si no quisieras a los seres humanos, tú que viniste a dar la vida por ellos. Aumentaste la libertad humana en vez de confiscarla, y así impusiste para siempre a los espíritus el terror de esta libertad. Deseabas que se te amara libremente, que los hombres te siguieran por su propia voluntad, fascinados. En vez de someterse a las duras leyes de la antigüedad, el hombre tendría desde entonces que discernir libremente entre el bien y el mal, no teniendo más guía que la de tu imagen, y no previste que al fin rechazaría, e incluso pondría en duda, tu imagen y tu verdad, abrumado por la tremenda carga de la libertad de escoger.”

“our fatal troika dashes on in her headlong flight perhaps to destruction and in all Russia for long past men have stretched out imploring hands and called a halt to its furious reckless course.”

“He had a high opinion of his own insight, a weakness excusable in him as he was fifty, an age at which a clever man of the world of established position can hardly help taking himself rather seriously.”

“In my opinion, Christ’s love for people is in its kind a miracle impossible on earth. True, he was God. But we are not gods.”

“Brother, let me ask one thing more: has any man a right to look at other men and decide which is worthy to live?”

“He had often felt anguish before, and it would be no wonder if it came at such a moment, when he was preparing, the very next day, having suddenly broken with everything that had drawn him there, to make another sharp turn, entering upon a new, completely unknown path, again quite as lonely as before, having much hope, but not knowing for what, expecting much, too much, from life, but unable himself to define anything either in his expectations or even in his desires.”

“When you’re older, you will see yourself what significance age has upon convictions.”

“When I am upstairs in my little garret I have only to remember and imagine the rustle of your dress, and I am ready to bite off my hands.”

“There are moments in the life of old liars who have been play-acting all their lives when they are so carried away by the part they're playing that they actually do weep and tremble with excitement, in spite of the fact that at that very moment (or second later) they could have whispered to themselves: 'you're lying, you shameless old fool! Now, too, you're just acting a part in spite of all your "sacred" wrath and "sacred" moment of your wrath.' Dmitry frowned threateningly and looked at his father with indescribable contempt.”

“These educated parents subjected the poor five-year old girl to every possible torture. They beat her, flogged her, kicked her, not knowing why themselves, until her whole body was nothing but bruises; finally they attained the height of finesse: in the freezing cold, they locked her all night in the outhouse, because she wouldn't ask to get up and go in the middle of the night (as if a five-year-old child sleeping its sound angelic sleep could have learned to ask by that age)--for that they smeared her face with her excrement and made her eat the excrement, and it was her mother, her mother who made her! And this mother could sleep while her poor little child was moaning all night in that vile place! Can you understand that a small creature, who cannot even comprehend what is being done to her, in a vile place, in the dark and the cold, beats herself on her strained little chest with her tiny fist and weeps with her anguished, gentle, meek tears for 'dear God' to protect her--can you understand such nonsense, my friend and my brother, my godly and humble novice, can you understand why this nonsense is needed and created? Without it, they say, man could not even have lived on earth, for he would not have known good and evil. Who wants to know this damned good and evil at such a price? The whole world of knowledge is not worth the tears of that little child to 'dear God.' I'm not talking about the suffering of grown-ups, they ate the apple and to hell with them, let the devil take them all, but these little ones!”

“proofs are no help to believing, especially material proofs. Thomas believed, not because he saw Christ risen, but because he wanted to believe, before he saw.”

“When she was taken too bad she went off quite alone to the sea-shore, so that the customs officer, going his rounds, often found her lying flat on her face, crying on the shingle. Then, after her marriage, it went off, they say." "But with me," replied Emma, "it was after marriage that it began.”

“Our own humble and meek ones, fasters and keepers of silence, will arise and go forth for a great deed.”

“It's magnificent, Alyosha, this science! A new man's arising-that I understand.... And yet I am sorry to lose God!”

“He saw that the Prisoner had listened carefully all the time, looking gently in his face--But evidently he did not want to reply. The old man longed for Him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But he suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on the forehead.”

“... we took from him, ... proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth, though we have not yet been able to complete our work.”

“A strange idea was pecking at his brain like a chicken in the egg, and very, very much absorbed him.”