Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Los lamentos no son sino el deseo de abrir aún más la herida.”

“If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. if I, a sinner, even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and expiate not only your sins but the sins of others.”

“Pytałem przed chwilą co to jest ojciec i zawołałem, że to słowo wielkie, miano drogocenne. Ale słowa trzeba, panowie, używać uczciwie (...) „ojcowie, nie rozgoryczajcie dzieci waszych”! Albowiem wypełnijmy najpierw sami wolę Chrystusową, a wtedy dopiero stawiajmy wymagania dzieciom naszym. Inaczej nie ojcami, ale wrogami dzieci naszych jesteśmy, one zaś nie dziećmi naszymi, ale wrogami, których samiśmy sobie uczynili! „Jaką miarką mierzycie, taką będzie wam odmierzone” – już nie ja to mówię, lecz Ewangelia – jakże więc obwiniać dzieci, że nam naszą miarką odmierzają? (...) ten, co zrodził, nie jest jeszcze ojcem – ojcem bowiem jest ten, co i zrodził, i zasłużył sobie na miano ojca.”

“Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from faith.”

“Yes, universal history! It's the study of the successive follies of mankind and nothing more.”

“Para que uno pueda amar a un hombre, es preciso que este hombre permanezca oculto. Apenas ve uno su rostro, el amor se desvanece.”

“Indeed, people speak sometimes about the ‘animal’ cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to animals, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”

“Look how our young people commit suicide, without asking themselves Hamlet’s question what there is beyond, without a sign of such a question, as though all that relates to the soul and to what awaits us beyond the grave had long been erased in their minds and buried under the sands.”

“December 22, 1849. To-day, the 22nd of December, we were all taken to Semionovsky Square. There the death-sentence was read to us, we were given the Cross to kiss, the dagger was broken over our heads, and our funeral toilet (white shirts) was made. Then three of us were put standing before the palisades for the execution of the death-sentence. I was sixth in the row; we were called up by groups of three, and so I was in the second group, and had not more than a minute to live. I thought of you, my brother, and of yours; in that last moment you alone were in my mind; then first I learnt how very much I love you, my beloved brother ! I had time to embrace Plechtcheyev and Dourov, who stood near me, and to take my leave of them. Finally, retreat was sounded, those who were bound to the palisades were brought back, and it was read to us that His Imperial Majesty granted us our lives. Then the final sentences were recited. Palm alone is fully pardoned. He has been transferred to the line with the :ame rank. F.”

“There’s the Holy Ghost and there’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can appear as other birds- sometimes as a swallow, sometimes a goldfinch and sometimes as a blue-tit.” “How do you know him from an ordinary tit?” “He speaks.” “How does he speak, in what language?” “Human language.” “And what does he tell you?” “Why, to-day he told me that a fool would visit me and would ask me unseemly questions. You”

“E cu putinţă oare ca omul să se simtă cu adevărat nefericit? Dar ce importanţă au necazurile şi nenorocirile mele dacă sunt în stare să fiu fericit? Ştiţi, nu înţeleg cum poate cineva trece pe lângă un copac şi să nu fie fericit că-l vede? Să stea de vorbă cu un om şi să nu fie fericit că-l iubeşte?… Dar există atâtea lucruri minunate pe care le întâlneşti la fiecare pas şi pe care până şi omul cel mai decăzut le găseşte minunate!”

“He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt; and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in its firmness. CHAPTER”

“إن طفيليات من نوع جديد قد ظهرت، واختارت أجسام البشر مسكنا لها. غير أن هذه المخلوقات الميكروسكوبية مزودة بعقل وإرادة، والبشر الذين تدخل أجسادهم يصبحون على الفور مجانين مسعورين، ولكنهم يعدون أنفسهم على ذكاء عظيم لم يزعمه البشر لأنفسهم في يوم من الأيام قط فهم يعتقدون بأنهم معصومون من الزلل مبرؤون من الخطأ ، في أحكامهم، في نتائجهم العملية، في مبادئهم الأخلاقية والدينية. إن قرى ومدنا وأمما بكاملها قد سرت إليها هذه العدوى، وفقدت العقل. أصبح أفرادها يعيشون في حالة جنون، لا يفهم بعضهم عن بعض شيئا، لا يفهم أحد منه عن أحد شيئا؛ كل واحد يؤمن بأنه الإنسان الوحيد الذي يمتلك الحقيقة، فإذا نظر إلى الاخرين تألم وبكى ولطم صدره وعقف يديه لوعة وحسرة. أصبح الناس لا يستطيعون أن يتفاهموا على ما ينبغي أن يعد شرا وما ينبغي أن يعد خيرا. أصبحوا لا يستطيعون لا أن يدينوا ولا أن يبرئوا. أصبح البشر يقتل بعضهم بعضا تحت سيطرة بغص لا معنى له وكره لا يفهم. هم يجتمعون ليؤلفوا جيوشا كبيرة، فما أن يدخلوا معركة حتى يندلع الشقاق في جميع الصفوف فتنحل الجيوش، ويأخذ الجنود يهجم بعضهم على بعض، فيعض بعدهم بعضا، ويذبح بعضهم بعضا، ويلتهم بعضهم بعضا. ف المدن يدق ناقوس الخطر طوال النهار ويستنفر الشعب. ولكن من الذي يستنفره؟ ولماذا يستنفره؟ ذلك أمر لا يعرف أحد عنه شيئا. الرعب يستبد بجميع الخلق. المهن العادية هجرها أصحابها، لأن كل واحد يعرض آراءه وإصلاحاته وما من أحد يستطيع أن يتفق مع أحد. أهملت الزراعة إهمالا تاما. هنا وهناك يجتمع أناس فيشكلون جماعات ويتفاهمون على القيام بعمل مشترك، متعاهدين بأغلظ الأيمان على أن لا يفترقوا قط، ولكنهم ما يلبثون أن يشرعوا في شيء لا يمت بصلة إلى ما عقدوا النية على القيام به، ثم ما يلبثون أن يأخذوا في التراشق بالتهمـ ثم ما يلبثوا أن يقتتلوا فيذبح بعصهم بعضا. وتشتعل الحرائق وتظهر المجاعة. كل شيء يصيبه الدمار وجميع الناس يهلكون. البلاء ما ينفك يشتد قوة ويتسع مدى. ولا ينجو من البلاء إلا عدد قليل من الناس: هم الأنقياء الأطهار المصطفون الأخيار الذين كتب عليهم أن ينشئوا جنسا جديدا وأن يقيموا حياة جديدة، أن يجددوا الأرض ويطهورها. غير أن أحدا لم ير أولئك الأفراد في مكان ولا سمع أقوالهم ولا سمع اصواتهم.”

“But what do you say to this argument (help me with it): ghosts are, as it were, shreds and fragments of other worlds, the beginning of them. A man in health has, of course, no reason to see them, because he is above all a man of this earth and is bound for the sake of completeness and order to live only in this life. But as soon as one is ill, as soon as the normal earthly order of the organism is broken, one begins to realise the possibility of another world; and the more seriously ill one is, the closer becomes one’s contact with that other world, so that as soon as the man dies he steps straight into that world. I thought of that long ago. If you believe in a future life, you could believe in that, too.”

“He went up to his room like a man who has been condemned to death. His mind was completely empty, and he was quite incapable of filling it with anything; but with his whole being he suddenly felt that he no longer possessed any freedom of thought or of will, and that everything had suddenly been decided once and for all.”

“Rakitin was dishonest and was decidedly unaware of it; that, on the contrary, knowing that he wouldn't steal money from the table, he ultimately considered himself a man of the highest integrity.”

“أأنا أحبها؟ ومرة أخرى لم أستطع أن أجد لهذا السؤال جواباً، أو قل إنني أجبت للمرة المائة بأنني أكرهها ، نعم أكرهها. مرت بي لحظات وخاصة في ختام الأحاديث التي تقوم بيننا. تمنيت فيها أن أهب نصف عمري في سبيل أن أخنقها أقسم أنه لو في وسعي أن أغمد خنجراً مسنوناً في صدرها على مهل، لشعرت من ذلك بمتعة فيما أظن. ومع ذلك أقسم بأقدس ما أقدّس أنني لو طلبت مني ونحن على جبل شلانجنبرج، أن ألقي بنفسي من أعلى قمة يرتادها الناس، لرميت نفسي فوراً ولشعرت من ذلك بغبطة. دوستويفسكي / المقامر”

“E direi, in me c'è tanta di questa forza, ormai, che io prevarrò su ogni cosa, su tutte le sofferenze, non per altro che per dire a me stesso di continuo: io esisto; mi dibatto nella tortura, ma esisto! Sto legato al pilastro ma esisto pur sempre, vedo il sole, e se il sole non lo vedo, so che c'è. E saper che c'è il sole, è già tutta la vita.”

“Samovar is the most essential thing in Russia, especially at times of particularly awful, sudden, and eccentric catastrophes and misfortunes”

“And in all of us, as well as in the aspens and clouds and nebulae, there was a process of evolution. Evolution from what? Into what?- Eternal evolution and struggle... As though there could be any sort of tendency and struggle in the eternal! And I was astonished that in spite of the utmost effort of thought in this direction I could not discover the meaning of life, the meaning of my impulses and yearnings. And the meaning of my impulses is so clear within me, that I was living according to them all the time, and I was astonished and rejoiced when the peasant expressed it to me: to live for God, for my soul.”