Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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

“I will explain; the enjoyment was just from the too intense consciousness of one’s own degradation; it was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier, that it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise; that there was no escape for you; that you never could become a different man; that even you did wish to, even then you would do nothing; because per- haps in reality there was nothing for you to change into.”

“Your poem was in praise of Jesus, not in blame of Him--as you meant it to be.”

“Drag mi je poneki čovjek kojeg gdjekad, zamisli, i ne znaš zašto voliš, drag mi je poneki ljudski pothvat u koji si već odavno prestao vjerovati, a ipak ga iz navike od srca cijeniš.”

“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.”

“I have mentioned already, by the way, that though he lost his mother in his fourth year he remembered her all his life—her face, her caresses, “as though she stood living before me.” Such memories may persist, as every one knows, from an even earlier age, even from two years old, but scarcely standing out through a whole lifetime like spots of light out of darkness, like a corner torn out of a huge picture, which has all faded and disappeared except that fragment.”

“A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea--he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility”

“Alyosha said to himself: "I can't give two roubles instead of 'all,' and only go to mass instead of 'following Him.”

“المرء يكون أقرب إلى الحقيقة حين يكون غبيا. إن الغباء يمضي نحو الهدف رأسا ، دون لف ودوران غامضين ، الغباء بساطة وإيجاز ، أما الذكاء فمكر ومخاتلة. إن الفكر الذكي فاجر فاسد ، أما الغباء فمستقيم شريف . . .”

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

“He noticed that Ivan swayed as he walked and that his right shoulder was lower than his left. He had never noticed it before.”

“The mind travels more freely on this limitless expanse, the contemplation of which elevates the soul, gives ideas of the infinite, the idea?”

“Never for one minute have I taken you for reality . . . You are a lie, you are my illness, you are a phantom . . . You are my hallucination. You are the incarnation of myself . . . of my thoughts and feelings, but only the nastiest and stupidest of them.”

“The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for “style,” not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:”

“For you must know, my dear ones, that each of us is undoubtedly guilty on behalf of all and for all on earth, not only because of the common guilt of the world, but personally, each one of us, for all people and for each person on this earth. This knowledge is the crown of the monk’s path, and of every man’s path on earth. For monks are not a different sort of men, but only such as all men on earth ought also to be. Only then will our hearts be moved to a love that is infinite, universal, and that knows no satiety. Then each of us will be able to gain the whole world by love and wash away the world’s sins with his tears …”

“Note for a moment do I take you for a truth that is real,' Ivan exclaimed in what even amounted to fury. 'You are a falsehood, you are my illness, you are a ghost. Only I do not know how to destroy you, and perceive that for a certain time I must suffer you. You are a hallucination I am having. You are the embodiment of myself, but only of one side of me ... of my thoughts and emotions, though only those that are most loathsome and stupid. In that regard you might even be of interest to me, if only I had time to throw away on you ...”

“Still I know that I am a million times more worthless in my soul than she is, and that her lofty feelings--are as sincere as a heavenly angel's! That's the tragedy, that I know it for certain. What's wrong with declaiming a little? Am I not declaiming? But I am sincere, I really am sincere. As for Ivan, I can understand with what a curse he must look at nature now, and with his intelligence, too! To whom, to what has the preference been given? It has been given to a monster, who even here, already a fiancé and with all eyes looking at him, was not able to refrain from debaucheries--and that right in front of his fiancée, right in front of his fiancée! And a man like me is preferred, and he is rejected. Why? Because a girl wants to violate her life and destiny, out of gratitude! Absurd!”

“Ali zaljubiti se, ne znači voleti. Zaljubiti se čovek može i mrzeći. Zapamti! Zasad još veselo govorim! Sedi, evo ovde, za sto, a ja ću pored tebe, i gledaću te, i neprestano ću govoriti. Ti ćeš jednako ćutati, a ja ću stalno govoriti, jer je kucnuo čas. Ali, uostalom, znaš, mislim da treba, zbilja, govoriti tiho, zato što ovde... ovde... mogu da iskrsnu sasvim neočekivane uši. Sve ću ja to objasniti, kazao sam ti: nastavak sledi. Zašto me je srce vuklo k tebi, zašto sam žudio za tobom za sve ovo vreme, i sada? Za sve ovo vreme? Zato što ću samo tebi kazati, zato što tako treba, zato što si mi potreban, zato što ću ja sutra pasti s oblaka, zato što će se sutra život svršiti i početi. Da li si osećao, da li si viđao u snu kako se s visine pada u bezdan? E, eto ti, tako ja sad letim, samo ne u snu. I ne bojim se, ni ti se ne boj. To jest, bojim se, ali mi je slatko. To jest nije slatko, nego ushićenje... Eh, do đavola, svejedno, kako mu bilo! Jaki duh, slabi duh, ženski duh - što mu drago! Slavimo prirodu: vidiš šta je tu sunca, kako je nebo vedro, lišće je sve zeleno, sasvim je još leto, četvrti sat posle podne, tišina! Kud si bio pošao?”

“Why, the isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age—it has not fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For every one strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realization he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and thinks, ‘How strong I am now and how secure,’ and in his madness he does not understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his money and the privileges that he has won for himself. Everywhere in these days men have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light. And then the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens.... But, until then, we must keep the banner flying. Sometimes even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be crazy, a man must set an example, and so draw men's souls out of their solitude, and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea may not die.”

“How can I forgive his tormentors?’ she bids all the saints, all the martyrs, all the angels and archangels to fall down together with her and plead for the pardon of all without discrimination.”