Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“These spoilt fine ladies, if they set their hearts on anything, will spare no expense to satisfy their caprice.”

“In brief there was every appearance of gentility on straitened means.”

“and it would have been an excellent thing if we’d have been conquered by the French; an intelligent nation would have overpowered a thoroughly stupid one and annexed it. Everything would have been different.”

“he was already to some extent a youth of our times—in other words, naturally honest, insisting on truth, seeking it and believing in it, and, once believing, demanding instant commitment to it with all the strength of his soul and wanting to rush off and perform great deeds, sacrificing all, if necessary even life itself.”

“People may ridicule the vows of obedience, fasting, and prayer, yet these are the only way to attain true freedom. It is by discarding cumbersome and unnecessary demands, by subduing and disciplining selfish and conceited aspirations, by obedience, that the monk, with God’s help, achieves spiritual freedom and thereby finds spiritual happiness.”

“A nice God you've got, if man created him in his image and likeness.”

“Certainly, love it, regardless of logic as you say, it must be regardless of logic, and it's only then one will understand the meaning of it”

“For, if He doesn’t exist, man is master of the world, of all creation. Splendid! Only how is he going to be virtuous without God? That’s the question! I keep coming back to it. Who is he going to love then—man, I mean? To whom is he going to offer his gratitude, to whom is he going to sing his hymn of praise? Rakitin is ridiculous. Rakitin says you don’t need God to love mankind. Only a snotty pipsqueak could assert such a thing, it’s beyond me how he can say that. It’s all right for Rakitin. “You”, he said to me today, “should be fighting for the extension of man’s civic rights, or at least for the price of meat not to go up; that’s the simplest and most direct way of manifesting your love for mankind, rather than by philosophizing.” I came straight back at him: “Without God,” I said, “you’d be the first to raise the price of meat if the opportunity presented itself and there was a rouble or two to be made.”

“She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. ‘But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, ‘to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!”

“Así podemos creer que el antepasado de la foca no poseyó aletas, sino patas con cinco dedos adecuados para andar o coger, y podemos además aventurarnos a creer que los diversos huesos en las extremidades del mono, caballo y murciélago se desarrollaron primitivamente, según el principio de utilidad, probablemente por reducción de huesos, más numerosos en la aleta de algún remoto antepasado, común a toda la clase, semejante a un pez.”

“kneaded this social dough”

“...I've never seen and never will see any lovely fallen creatures”

“Tutto quello che si mostrava così chiaramente a Kitty nello specchio del volto di Anna, ella lo vide in lui. [...] egli ora, ogni volta che si rivolgeva a lei, piegava un po' il capo, come desiderando di caderle davanti, e nello sguardo aveva la sua espressione dell docilità e del timore.”

“the sun rose brilliant and quickly wore away the thin layer of ice that covered the water, and all the warm air was quivering with the steam that rose up from the quickened earth.”

“for him all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class—all the girls in the world except her, and those girls with all sorts of human weaknesses, and very ordinary girls: the other class—she alone, having no weaknesses of any sort and higher than all humanity.”

“and at once, amidst all the skaters, he knew her. He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror that seized his heart.”

“Poiché la parte vissuta della sua esistenza non era stata nulla di buono, la parte restante sarebbe stata certamente migliore.”

“– Assim, nós – dizia ele –, por que nós nos conhecemos? Que acaso o quis? É que através da distância, sem dúvida como dois rios que correm para se unirem, as nossas inclinações particulares nos tinam levado um para o outro E ele tomou sua mão; e ela não a retirou. "Conjunto de boas culturas" – gritou o presidente. – Assim, por exemplo, quando eu fui à sua casa... "Ao Sr. Bizet, de Quincampoix." – Eu sabia que a acompanharia? "Setenta francos!" – Até mesmo cem vezes eu quis partir, e eu a segui, e fiquei. "Estrumes!" – Como eu ficaria esta noite, amanhã, os outros dias, toda a minha vida! "Ao Sr. Caron, d'Argueil, uma medalha de ouro!" – Pois nunca encontrei na companhia de alguém um encantamento tão completo. "Ao Sr. Bain, de Givry-Saint-Martin!" – Assim, eu, vou levar a sua lembrança. "Por um carneiro merino..." – Mas você vai me esquecer, eu vou ter passado como uma sombra. "Ao Sr. Belot, de Notre-Dame..." – Oh! Não, não é, eu serei alguma coisa em seu pensamento, em sua vida?”

“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.”

“Above all, I wouldn’t want to prove anything, I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right haven’t I? - Anna Karenina, p.616”