Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“—En primer lugar, no tengo trece años, sino que dentro de quince días cumpliré los catorce —dijo impetuosamente—. Además, no comprendo qué relación tiene mi edad con lo que estamos discutiendo. Son mis convicciones y no mi edad lo que importa. ¿No es así? —Cuando seas mayor verás la influencia que tiene la edad en las ideas. Eso no puede haber salido de ti.”

“Work without ceasing. If you remember in the night as you go to sleep, “I have not done what I ought to have done,” rise up at once and do it.”

“People point less often to these monks, and even pass them over in silence, and how surprised they would be if I were to say that from these meek ones, thirsting for solitary prayer, will perhaps come once again the salvation of the Russian land! For truly they are made ready in peace “for the day and the hour, and the month and the year.”1”

“God has had pity on me and is calling me to Himself. I know I am dying, but I feel joy and peace for the first time after so many years. There was heaven in my heart from the moment I had done what I had to do. Now I dare to love my children and to kiss them. Neither my wife nor the judges, nor anyone has believed it. My children will never believe it either. I see in that God’s mercy to them. I shall die, and my name will be without a stain for them. And now I feel God near, my heart rejoices as in Heaven… I have done my duty.”

“He could not endure without mortification, without resentment even, that the holiest of holy men should have been exposed to the jeering and spiteful mockery of the frivolous crowd so inferior to him.”

“I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. 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 labour and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”

“She had been trembling and fainting with terror almost every day, afraid he would fall ill, would catch cold, do something naughty, climb on a chair and fall off it, and so on and so on. When Kolya began going to school, the mother devoted herself to studying all the sciences with him so as to help him, and go through his lessons with him.”

“All this, too, is deceitful posturing.”

“When did anybody ever sell anything without being told immediately after the sale, 'It was worth much more'? But when one wants to sell, no one will give anything….”

“Böyle işte, diyordu. Dostumuz Konstantin Dmitriç ne yetenekli bir gençti. Oysa şimdi nerede o eski Konstantin Dmitriç! O zamanlar bilimi de severdi. Üniversiteden çıktığında insanlara özgü düşünceleri vardı. Şimdi ise yeteneklerinin yarısı kendi kendini aldatmaya, öteki yarısı da bu aldatışı haklı göstermeye yönelmiş durumda. iletişim yayınları. syf :441.”

“Wszystkie szczęśliwe rodziny są do siebie podobne, każda nieszczęśliwa rodzina jest nieszczęśliwa na swój sposób.”

“he would have been considered quite a suitable match. But Levin was in love, and therefore Kitty seemed to him so perfect in every respect, so transcending everything earthly, and he seemed to himself so very earthly and insignificant a creature, that the possibility of his being considered worthy of her by others or by herself was to him unimaginable.”

“He felt that if they had both not kept up appearances, but had spoken, as it is called, from the heart—that is to say, had said only just what they were thinking and feeling—they would simply have looked into each other's faces, and Konstantin could only have said, "You're dying, you're dying!" and Nikolay could only have answered, "I know I'm dying, but I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" And they could have said nothing more, if they had said only what was in their hearts. But life like that was impossible, and so Konstantin tried to do what he had been trying to do all his life, and never could learn to do, though, as far as he could observe, many people knew so well how to do it, and without it there was no living at all. He tried to say what he was not thinking, but he felt continually that it had a ring of falsehood, that his brother detected him in it, and was exasperated at it.”

“He suddenly felt that the very thing that was the source of his sufferings had become the source of his spiritual joy; that what had seemed insoluble while he was judging, blaming, and hating, had become clear and simple when he forgave and loved.”

“What is a Pietist, papa?" asked Kitty, dismayed to find that what she prized so highly in Madame Stahl had a name. "I don't quite know myself. I only know that she thanks God for everything, for every misfortune, and thanks God too that her husband died. And that's rather droll, as they didn't get on together.”

“Trebuie să-i mulţumeşti Lui şi tot Lui să-i ceri ajutor. Numai în El vom găsi liniştea, mângâierea, salvarea şi iubirea, adăugă ea şi, înălţându-şi privirea la cer, începu să se roage, după cum înţelese Alexei Alexandrovici din tăcerea ei.”

“He felt for the first moment as a man feels when, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, he turns round, angry and eager to avenge himself, to look for his antagonist, and finds that it is he himself who has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with, and that he must put up with and try to soothe the pain.”

“Low as was his opinion of Golenishtchev’s capacity for understanding art, trifling as was the true remark upon the fidelity of the expression of Pilate as an official, and offensive as might have seemed the utterance of so unimportant an observation while nothing was said of more serious points, Mihailov was in an ecstasy of delight at this observation.”

“On the day of the races at Krasnoe Selo, Vronsky had come earlier than usual to eat beefsteak in the common messroom of the regiment. He had no need to be strict with himself, as he had very quickly been brought down to the required light weight; but still he had to avoid gaining flesh, and so he eschewed farinaceous and sweet dishes. He sat with his coat unbuttoned over a white waistcoat, resting both elbows on the table, and while waiting for the steak he had ordered he looked at a French novel that lay open on his plate. He was only looking at the book to avoid conversation with the officers coming in and out; he was thinking.”

“But there was a second kind of people, the real ones, to which they all belonged, for whom the main thing was to be elegant, beautiful, generous, bold, and gay, to give way unblushingly to every passion and to laugh at everything else.”