Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“No living man lives without some sort of goal and a striving towards it. Having lost both goal and hope, a man often turns into a monster from anguish...”

“But it is just in that cold, abominable half despair, half belief, in that conscious burying oneself alive for grief in the underworld for forty years, in that acutely recognised and yet partly doubtful hopelessness of one's position, in that hell of unsatisfied desires turned inward, in that fever of oscillations, of resolutions determined for ever and repented of again a minute later--that the savour of that strange enjoyment of which I have spoken lies.”

“No, I'd better not speak of it. It's a secret for me alone, of vital importance for me, and not to be put into words. This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden as I dreamed. Just like the feeling for my child, there was no surprise in this either. Faith—or not faith—I don't know what it is—but this feeling has come just as imperceptibly through suffering, and has taken firm root in my soul. I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly. There will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife. I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it. I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying. But my life now—my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me—every minute of it—is no more meaningless as it was before, but has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

“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….”

“Time, which diminishes and erodes all things, increases and augments generous deeds …”

“Bir başkasının en büyük sevinçlerinin ve en derin acılarının yegane kaynağı,keyfi ve sorumsuz sebebi olmak çok tatlıydı.”

“Hm… yes, all is in a man’s hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that’s an axiom.”

“This life you cry up so much is what I wanted to extinguish by suicide, whereas my dream, my dream—oh, it has revealed to me a great, new, regenerated intensity of life!”

“No se piensa en nada; las horas pasan. Uno se pasea inmovil por paises que cree ver, y su pensamiento, enlazandose a la ficcion, se recrea en los detalles o sigue el hilo de las aventuras. Se identifica con los personajes; parece que somos nosotros mismos los que participamos bajo sus pieles.”

“Now, in that moment, he knew that neither all his doubts, nor the impossibility he knew in himself of believing by means of reason, hindered him in the least from addressing God. It all blew off his soul like dust.”

“...except life's usual answer to the most complex and insoluble questions. That answer is: live in the needs of the day, that is find forgetfulness.”

“Au fond de son âme, cependant, elle attendait un événement. Comme les matelots en détresse elle promenait sur la solitude de sa vie des yeux désespérés, cherchant au loin quelque voile blanche dans les brumes de l’horizon. Elle ne savait pas quel serait ce hasard, le vent qui le pousserait jusqu’à elle, vers quel rivage il la mènerait, s’il était chaloupe ou vaisseau à trois ponts, chargé d’angoisses ou plein de félicités jusqu’aux sabords. Mais chaque matin, à son réveil, elle l’espérait pour la journée, et elle écoutait tous les bruits, se levait en sursaut, s’étonnait qu’il ne vînt pas; puis, au coucher du soleil, toujours plus triste, désirait être au lendemain.”

“I’d like to turn the deepest of yellows, / Falling, drop by drop, in a golden shower, / Into her lap..." Les Amours de Cassandre”

“Quant à Emma, elle ne s’interrogea point pour savoir si elle l’aimait. L’amour, croyait-elle, devait arriver tout à coup, avec de grands éclats et des fulgurations, – ouragan des cieux qui tombe sur la vie, la bouleverse, arrache les volontés comme des feuilles et emporte à l’abîme le cœur entier.”

“Нет таких условий, к которым человек не мог бы привыкнуть, в особенности если он видит, что все окружающие его живут так же.”

“Gentle and kindly creatures don’t put up much resistance and, though they may not reveal much of themselves, they have no idea of how to evade a conversation: they are sparing in their replies but they do reply, and the longer it goes on, the more you learn, but you have to keep at it, if that’s what you’re after.”

“A flash of lightning illuminated the object ... it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had given life." Frankenstein”

“A new-comer of any age or either sex was an impressive curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg.”

“To Konstantin the peasant was simply the chief partner in their common labor, and in spite of all the respect and the love, almost like that of kinship, he had for the peasant—sucked in probably, as he said himself, with the milk of his peasant nurse—still as a fellow-worker with him, while sometimes enthusiastic over the vigor, gentleness, and justice of these men, he was very often, when their common labors called for other qualities, exasperated with the peasant for his carelessness, lack of method, drunkenness, and lying.”

“When you've grasped the fact that today or tomorrow you will die and nothing will be left of you, everything becomes so insignificant.”