Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Totuşi nu putem să nu atragem luarea-aminte a cititorului că eroul nostru — un om simplu, foarte modest, care trăise într-o singurătate absolută, tainică, până la începutul convieţuirii cu alţi chiriaşi, era cunoscut ca o persoană liniştită, ba chiar cam enigmatică. Căci în timpul ultimei sale şederi la Peski, obişnuia să stea întins în pat, după paravan. Nu scotea o vorbă şi nu avea relaţii cu nimeni. Ceilalţi doi colocatari ai săi îi semănau în totul: amândoi păreau de asemeni misterioşi şi au stat culcaţi în pat, după paravan, cincisprezece ani. Zile, ceasuri — fericite şi somnolente — se scurseseră unele după altele într-o pace patriarhală.”

“Y te preguntas «¿Dónde están tus sueños?». Y meneas la cabeza y te dices: «¡Qué rápido pasan los años!» Y de nuevo te preguntas «¿Y qué has hecho con tus años? ¿Dónde has enterrado tu mejor época? ¿Has o no vivido?»”

“Kinsman of Mahomet or Salutary Folly, a scandalous book published in Moscow a hundred years ago, before they had any censorship.”

“can't you see that I don't want your benevolence? A strange desire you have to shower benefits on a man who … curses them, who feels them a burden in fact! Why did you seek me out at the beginning of my illness? Maybe I was very glad to die. Didn't I tell you plainly enough to-day that you were torturing me, that I was … sick of you! You seem to want to torture people!”

“الملحد- الإنسان، ربما كنت أخشاه إلى الآن. ولكن هذا الملحد- الإنسان، يا ألكسندر سیمنوفتش، لم يتفق لي أن لقيته مرة واحدة في يوم من الأيام، وإنما أنا لقيت الملحد - المشوش. نعم هكذا يجب أن يسمى. أناس من كل نوع، لا يستطيع المرء أن يرى رؤية واضحة من هم. بينهم كبار وصغار، وبينهم حمقي وعلماء، وبينهم حتى أفراد من عامة الشعب. وهم جميعًا مشوشون. إنهم يقضون حياتهم كلها في القراءة والاستدلال والتفكير، وقد امتلأت نفوسهم افتتانا بالكتب، ولكنهم يظلون دائمًا في الشك، ولا يستطيعون أن يعزموا أمرهم على شيء، منهم من تبعثروا تبعثرًا تامة فأصبحوا لا يلاحظون أنفسهم. ومنهم من جمدوا فكانوا كالصخر على امتلاء قلوبهم بالأحلام، ومنهم خفاف يحسون ولا يكترثون ولا يهمهم إلا أن يطلقوا السخريات تلو السخريات. و منهم لا يقطفون من الكتب إلا الزهرة، ولكنهم يقطفون الزهرة التي يريدون، ثم يظلون مشوشين لا يستقرون على حال. إن بين هؤلاء من طافوا بجميع العلوم ، ولكن الضجر بقي في قلوبهم. أعتقد أن الواحد منهم كلما كان أكثر فكرًا كان أكثر ضجرًا. انظر في هذه النقطة : هم جميع أموات، ولكن كلا منهم يتباهي بموته، ولا يخطر بباله أن يتجه إلى الحقيقة "الوحيدة". أن يعيش المرء بغير إله فذلك عذاب. إن الإنسان لا يستطيع أن يعيش بغير سجود. بغير سجود لا يمكن أن يحتمل الإنسان نفسه. لا أحد قادر على هذا. فإذا جحد الله سجد لمعبود من خشب أو من ذهب، أو سجد لمعبود صنعه له الخيال. إنهم جميعا وثنيون لا ملحدون، هكذا يجب أن نسميهم . ولكن كيف لا يكون هناك ملحدون ! إن بعض الناس ملحدون حقا، وهؤلاء أبعث على الخوف والرهبة من الآخرين، لأن اسم الله ماثل في أفواههم دائما. سمعت عن هؤلاء مرارا، ولكنني لم ألتقي أحدا منهم يوما.”

“They have science; but in science there is nothing but what is the object of sense. The spiritual world, the higher part of man’s being is rejected altogether, dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says: “You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don’t be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires.” That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom.”

“They have science; but in science there is nothing but what is the object of sense. The spiritual world, the higher part of man’s being is rejected altogether, dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with hatred. The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says: “You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don’t be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires.” That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? In the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for they have been given rights, but have not been shown the means of satisfying their wants.”

“At one point, in the east, the mists grew lighter and were clad in gold, like warriors. Then the mists swayed, and the golden warriors bent low. From behind them the sun rose, settled upon the gilt mountain ridges and beamed upon the plain, flooding it with its dazzling brilliance. And the mists now soared triumphantly in a glorious ring, broke up in the west and, fluttering, drifted off into the heights above. Makar thought that he heard a marvelous song. It was the very hymn with which the earth greeted the rising sun every day. Only Makar had not paid attention to it before, and this was the first time in all his life that he realized how beautiful the song was. He stood still listening to it, and refused to go any farther. He could stand there forever listening to it”

“You are not without the capacity of veneration, and faith and hope, and conscience and reason, and every other requisite to a Christian’s character, if you choose to employ them; but all our talents increase in the using, and every faculty, both good and bad, strengthens by exercise: therefore, if you choose to use the bad, or those which tend to evil, till they become your masters, and neglect the good till they dwindle away, you have only yourself to blame.”

“How great would be the disgrace to such a borough as that of Westminster if it should find that it had been taken in by a false spirit of speculation and that it had surrendered itself to gambling when it had thought to do honour to honest commerce.”

“But 'time is money,' don't forget that," said the Colonel. "It all depends on what time! There are times when one would give a whole month for a shilling and there are times when you would not give half an hour at any price.”

“Ce qui l'intéressait, c'était la discussion en elle -même et non point les conclusions auxquelles elle pouvait mener.”

“How happy you are, Anna!” said Dolly. “Everything is clear and good in your heart.” “Everyone has a skeleton in his closet, as the English say.”

“Though the children did not know Levin well and did not remember when they had last seen him, they did not feel towards him any of that strange shyness and antagonism so often felt by children towards grown-up people who 'pretend,' which causes them to suffer as painfully. Pretence about anything sometimes deceives the wisest and shrewdest man, but, however cunningly it is hidden, a child of the meanest capacity feels it and is repelled by it.”

“Formerly each separate desire caused by suffering or privation, such as hunger, fatigue, thirst, had been satisfied by a bodily function that gave pleasure; but now privation and suffering received no satisfaction, and the attempt at satisfaction caused new suffering.”

“I hear that you have just killed a bear," said Kitty, vainly trying to put her fork into a recalcitrant mush- room which kept flying about on the plate”

“In the entr’acte Levin and Pestsov fell into an argument upon the merits and defects of music of the Wagner school. Levin maintained that the mistake of Wagner and all his followers lay in their trying to take music into the sphere of another art, just as poetry goes wrong when it tries to paint a face as the art of painting ought to do, and as an instance of this mistake he cited the sculptor who carved in marble certain poetic phantasms flitting round the figure of the poet on the pedestal. "These phantoms were so far from being phantoms that they were positively clinging on the ladder," said Levin. [...] Pestsov maintained that art is one, and that it can attain its highest manifestations only by conjunction with all kinds of art.”

“He felt himself and did not want to be anyone else. All he wanted now was to be better than he had been before.”

“Se sabe que después de haber amputado dedos a un hombre han aparecido uñas imperfectas en los muñones, y lo mismo podría creer yo que estos vestigios de uñas se han desarrollado para excretar materia córnea, que creer que las uñas rudimentarias de la aleta del manatí se han desarrollado con este mismo fin.”

“that incongruity of common and elegant in which the habitually vulgar think they see the revelation of an eccentric existence, of the perturbations of sentiment, the tyrannies of art, and always a certain contempt for social conventions, that seduces or exasperates them.”