Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Such suffering and terror were what Christ spoke of.7 No, a human being should not be treated like that!’ Although he could not have put all this into words as the prince had done, the valet understood, if not all of it, then the main point, and this was even visible in his features, which showed that he was moved.”

“She was very like her mother: she even dressed like her, which proved that she had no taste for smart clothes.”

“And it was not that he seemed to have forgotten or intentionally forgiven the affront, but simply that he did not regard it as an affront, and this completely conquered and captivated the boys.”

“I wanted to tell you of a longing I have. I should like some one to torture me, marry me and then torture me, deceive me and go away. I don’t want to be happy.” “You are in love with disorder?”

“If the evil-doing of men moves you to indignation and overwhelming distress, even to a desire for vengeance on the evil-doers, shun above all things that feeling. Go at once and seek suffering for yourself, as though you were yourself guilty of that wrong. Accept that suffering and bear it and your heart will find comfort, and you will understand that you too are guilty, for you might have been a light to the evil-doers, even as the one man sinless, and you were not a light to them. If you had been a light, you would have lightened the path for others too, and the evil-doer might perhaps have been saved by your light from his sin. And even though your light was shining, yet you see men were not saved by it, hold firm and doubt not the power of the heavenly light.”

“Alyosha exclaimed. “I think that everyone should love life before everything else in the world.” “Love life more than its meaning?” “Certainly, love it before logic, as you say, certainly before logic, and only then will I also understand its meaning.”

“If the realist once believes, then he is bound by his very realism to admit the miraculous also. The Apostle Thomas said that he would not believe till he saw, but when he did see he said, “My Lord and my God!” Was it the miracle forced him to believe? Most likely not, but he believed solely because he desired to believe and possibly he fully believed in his secret heart even when he said, “I do not believe till I see.”

“Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”

“have come to us perhaps only to see whether here he could sacrifice all or only “two roubles,” and in the monastery he met this elder. I must”

“She confused in her desire the sensualities of luxury with the delights of the heart, elegance of manners with delicacy of sentiment. Did not love, like Indian plants, need a special soil,”

“The people are drinking, the educated youth are burning themselves up in idleness, in unrealizable dreams and fancies, crippling themselves with theories; Yids come flocking from somewhere, hiding the money away, and the rest of it falls into depravity.”

“What do you think?" shouted Razumihin, louder than ever, "you think I am attacking them for talking nonsense? Not a bit! I like them to talk nonsense. That's man's one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth!”

“soy susceptible de caer en una tentación, de enamorarme, pues esto no depende de nuestra voluntad.”

“Mantu sakrāts vairāk, bet prieka palicis mazāk.”

“Ce coc în minte și ce nimicuri mă oripilează! se miră el cu un zâmbet straniu. Curios: totul e la îndemâna omului, dar, de poltron ce e, șansele îi trec pe sub nas... Iată o axiomă. Interesant, de ce anume le e frică oamenilor cel mai mult? De următorul pas, de cuvântul ce le stă pe limbă — orice îi scoate din bulionul lor îi bagă în sperieți... De altminteri, și eu prea bat câmpii. De aceea nici nu fac nimic, pentru că bat câmpii. De fapt, e valabil și de-a-ndoaselea: bat câmpii pentru că nu fac nimic. În ultima lună, m-am deprins să dondănesc, zăcând cât e ziulica de lungă într-un ungher și visând cai verzi pe pereți. De ce m-am pornit într-acolo? Sunt eu capabil de lucrul ăsta? E asta ceva serios? Nicidecum. Fantezii, autoamăgire, joc! Da, pesemne, totul nu e decât un joc!”

“He waked up late next day after a broken sleep. But his sleep had not refreshed him; he waked up bilious, irritable, ill-tempered, and looked with hatred at his room. It was a tiny cupboard of a room about six paces in length. It had a poverty-stricken appearance with its dusty yellow paper peeling off the walls, and it was so low-pitched that a man of more than average height was ill at ease in it and felt every moment that he would knock his head against the ceiling. The furniture was in keeping with the room: there were three old chairs, rather rickety; a painted table in the corner on which lay a few manuscripts and books; the dust that lay thick upon them showed that they had been long untouched. A big clumsy sofa occupied almost the whole of one wall and half the floor space of the room; it was once covered with chintz, but was now in rags and served Raskolnikov as a bed. Often he went to sleep on it, as he was, without undressing, without sheets, wrapped in his old student's overcoat, with his head on one little pillow, under which he heaped up all the linen he had, clean and dirty, by way of a bolster. A little table stood in front of the sofa.”

“And indeed, human beings in general are fond, even inordinately fond, of being trampled on, have you noticed that? But of women it's especially true. One might even say they that can't get along without it.”

“There is no such rôle in a community. The community is established that there should be no such rôles. In a community, such a rôle is essentially transformed and what is stupid here is sensible there, what, under present conditions, is unnatural becomes perfectly natural in the community. It all depends on the environment. It’s all the environment and man himself is nothing.”

“—Óyeme, tú eres partidario de la obediencia y del misticismo. No me negarás que el cristianismo sólo ha sido útil a los acaudalados, a los poderosos, para mantener a las clases inferiores en la eselavitud.”

“Do not answer, be silent. After all, what could you say? I know too well what you would say. And you have no right to add anything to what you already said once.”