Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“But hesitation, anxiety, the struggle between belief and disbelief—all that is sometimes such a torment for a conscientious man like yourself, that it’s better to hang oneself. Precisely because I knew you had a tiny bit of belief in me, I let in some final disbelief, by telling you that anecdote. I’m leading you alternately between belief and disbelief, and I have my own purpose in doing so. A new method, sir: when you’ve completely lost faith in me, then you’ll immediately start convincing me to my face that I am not a dream but a reality—I know you now; and then my goal will be achieved. And it is a noble goal. I will sow a just a tiny seed of faith in you, and from it an oak will grow—and such an oak that you, sitting in that oak, will want to join ‘the desert fathers and the blameless women’; because secretly you want that ver-ry, ver-ry much, you will dine on locusts, you will drag yourself to the desert to seek salvation!”

“People should be nourished like children, and some of them like the patients in the hospitals.”

“Yes, guilty!” And then it was the same on each point:”

“Anyway, I give you my blessing; see if you can get at the truth, and come back and tell me: after all, it’ll be easier to make the trip to the next world once you know for sure what’s there.”

“Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we don't want to realize it, and if we did care to realize it, paradise would be established in all the world tomorrow.”

“One can love one's neighbors in the abstract, or even at a distance, but at close quarters it's almost impossible. If”

“How can we blame children if they measure us according to our measure?”

“Sajnos, ezek az ifjak nem értik, hogy az életük feláldozása a legtöbb ilyen esetben talán a legkönnyebb áldozat, és ha például fiatalságtól pezsgő életükből nehéz tanu­lásra, tudományra kellene feláldozni öt-hat évet - csakis azért, hogy megtízszerezzék erejüket ugyanannak az igazságnak a szolgálatára és ugyanannak a hőstettnek a véghezvitelére, amelyet magukban dédelgetnek és meg akarnak valósítani -, ez az áldozat, lépten-nyomon látjuk, igen sokuknak meghaladná az erejét.”

“My friends, ask gladness from God. Be glad as children, as birds in the sky. And let man's sin not disturb you in your efforts, do not fear that it will dampen your endeavor and keep it from being fulfilled, do not say, 'Sin is strong, impiety is strong, the bad environment is strong, and we are lonely and powerless, the bad environment is strong, and we are lonely and powerless, the bad environment will dampen us and keep our good endeavor from being fulfilled.' Flee from such despondency, my children! There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all.”

“I see the sun, and if I don't see the sun, I know it's there. And there's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.”

“Iubirea este o comoară fără preţ, cu care poţi dobândi o lume întreagă, care-ţi îngăduie să răscumperi nu numai păcatele tale, dar şi pe ale altora.”

“the only painting worth anything was done with the heart.”

“Una idea justa no puede ser estéril”

“Las mujeres son el principal obstáculo en la carrera de un hombre. Es difícil amar a una mujer y hacer algo de valía. Sólo existe un medio de que el amor no se convierta en una traba: el matrimonio.”

“if there are as many minds as there are men, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”

“Levin had often noticed in discussions between the most intelligent people that after enormous efforts, and an enormous expenditure of logical subtleties and words, the disputants finally arrived at being aware that what they had so long been struggling to prove to one another had long ago, from the beginning of the argument, been known to both, but that they liked different things, and would not define what they liked for fear of its being attacked. He had often had the experience of suddenly in a discussion grasping what it was his opponent liked and at once liking it too, and immediately he found himself agreeing, and then all arguments fell away as useless. Sometimes, too, he had experienced the opposite, expressing at last what he liked himself, which he was devising arguments to defend, and, chancing to express it well and genuinely, he had found his opponent at once agreeing and ceasing to dispute his position.”

“[...] e essa ideia de ter um filho homem era como a revanche de todas as suas impotências passadas. Um homem ao menos é livre; pode percorrer as paixões e os países, atravessar os obstáculos, ir atrás das alegrias mais distintas. Ao mesmo tempo inerte e flexível, a mulher tem a seu desfavor as fraquezas da carne e as dependências da lei. Sua vontade, como o véu do chapéu retido por uma fita, palpita ao sabor de todos os ventos; sempre há algum desejo que arrasta, alguma conveniência que retém.”

“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel arise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.”

“De liefde, meende zij, moest plotseling komen, met donder en bliksem -als een orkaan uit de hemel, die het leven overvalt, het omverwerpt, ieders wil als blaadjes van de bomen rukt en het hart volledig in de afgrond stort. Zij wist niet dat de regen plassen vormt op het plat van de huizen als de goten zijn verstopt; en zij zou zich dan ook nergens zorgen om hebben gemaakt, als zij niet plotseling een scheur in de muur had ontdekt.”

“Там было все про любовь, там были одни только любовники, любовницы, преследуемые дамы, падающие без чувств в уединенных беседках, кучера, которых убивают на каждой станции, кони, которых загоняют на каждой странице, дремучие леса, сердечные тревоги, клятвы, рыдания, слезы и поцелуи, челны, озаренные лунным светом, соловьиное пение в рощах, герои, храбрые, как львы, кроткие, как агнцы, добродетельные донельзя, всегда безукоризненно одетые, слезоточивые, как урны.”