Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“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.”

“Alyosha did not see how he could possibly continue to live as before. It is written, ‘If thou wilt be perfect, give away all that thou hast and come and follow me.’* Alyosha said to himself, ‘I cannot give two roubles instead of “all”, or substitute “go to church” for “follow me”.”

“El delegado del arzobispo me reconoce cuando voy a prestar juramento y me trata con tanta familiaridad como si hubiera entre nosotros algún lazo de masonería.”

“Chapter 44 — The Coming Election       The very greatness of Mr Melmotte’s popularity, the extent of the admiration which was accorded by the public at large to his commercial enterprise and financial sagacity, created a peculiar bitterness in the opposition that was organized against him at Westminster. As the high mountains are intersected by deep valleys, as puritanism in one age begets infidelity in the next, as in many countries the thickness of the winter’s ice will be in proportion to the number of the summer musquitoes, so was the keenness of the hostility displayed on this occasion in proportion to the warmth of the support which was manifested. As the great man was praised, so also was he abused. As he was a demi-god to some, so was he a fiend to others. And indeed there was hardly any other way in which it was possible to carry on the contest against him. From the moment in which Mr Melmotte had declared his purpose of standing for Westminster in the Conservative interest, an attempt was made to drive him down the throats of the electors by clamorous assertions of his unprecedented commercial greatness.”

“Ο πατέρας του του μιλούσε -έτσι αισθανόταν ο Σιεριόζα- μ' ένα ύφος σάμπως ν' αποτεινόταν σε κάποιο φανταστικό παιδί, σ' ένα από κείνα τα παιδιά που βρίσκουμε στα βιβλία, μα που δεν είχε καμία απολύτως ομοιότητα με τον Σιεριόζα. Κι ο μικρός όταν βρισκόταν με τον πατέρα του, προσπαθούσε να προσποιείται πως ήταν ένα τέτοιο παιδί των βιβλίων.”

“Qualunque sia e abbia da essere la nostra sorte, l'abbiamo fatta noi e noi non ce ne lamentiamo. [...] Loro non hanno neppure un'idea di cosa sia la felicità, non sanno che senza quest'amore per noi non c'è né felicità, né infelicità: non c'è vita.”

“it is a vicious circle. Woman is deprived of rights from lack of education, and the lack of education results from the absence of rights.”

“So much the worse for those who follow the fashion. The only happy marriages I know are marriages of convenience.” “Yes, but then how often the happiness of the convenient marriages flies away like dust just because that passion turns up that they have refused to recognize,” said Vronsky.”

“...aynı şeye hem trajik açıdan bakmak ve ondan bir ıstırap çıkartmak, hem de basit, hatta neşeli açıdan bakmak mümkün.”

“There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot accustom himself, especially if he sees that every one around him lives in the same way.”

“antediluvian”

“Elle ne se doutait point que l’amour, disparu de sa vie, palpitait là, près d’elle, sous cette chemise de grosse toile, dans ce cœur d’adolescent ouvert aux émanations de sa beauté.”

“[...] perdu dans un de ces bonheurs complets, n'appartenant sans doute qu'aux occupations médiocres qui amusent l'intelligence par des difficultés faciles, et l'assouvissent en une réalisation au delà de laquelle il n'y a pas à rêver.”

“Después me fui al lado de mi madre, y pasando mis brazos alrededor de su talle, como me había gustado siempre tanto hacer, apoyé mi mejilla en su hombro, y una vez mas sus hermosos cabellos cayeron sobre mí, «como las alas de un ángel»; me gusta pensar cuando me acuerdo de ello. ¡Qué feliz era!”

“And no doubt I should have shot myself if it had not been for that little girl.”