Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“keeps up with modern ideas explained the other day that compassion is forbidden nowadays by science itself, and that that’s what is done now in England, where there is political economy.”
“spent my life like a spider catching men in my web and sucking the life out of men, I couldn't”
“But what I say is, that if you convince a person logically that he has nothing to cry about, he'll stop crying. That's clear. Is it your conviction that he won't?" "Life would be too easy if it were so," answered Raskolnikov.”
“He was so perplexed that, in spite of everything surrounding him, he stood several times stock still in the middle of the pavement, completely possessed by the thought of his recent horrible humiliation; at that instant he was dying, disappearing; then he suddenly set off again like mad and ran and ran without looking back, as though he were pursued, as though he were fleeing from some still more awful calamity.”
“he did not sleep, but sank into blank forgetfulness.”
“Biz bugün "canlı"nın nerede yaşadığını, neden ibaret olduğunu, adını sanını bile bilmiyoruz. Bizi tek başımıza bırakın, elimizden kitapları alın o saat şaşkına döner, ne yana gideceğimizi, kimden yana çıkacağımızı, kimi sevip, kimden nefret edeceğimizi bilemeyiz. İnsan olmak, yani gerçek, kendi vücuduna sahip, kanlı canlı bir insan olmak dahi bize güç geliyor; bundan utanıyor, ayıp sayıyor, bildik, genel anlamda insan olmaya çabalıyoruz hep. Aslında biz ölü doğmuş yaratıklarız; zaten çoktandır canlı olmayan babalardan dünyaya geliyoruz ve bundan da gittikçe daha çok hoşlanıyoruz. Bundan zevk alıyoruz. Yakında bir kolayını bulup doğrudan doğruya fikir dölleri olarak dünyaya geleceğiz. Ama yeter bu kadar; daha fazla "Yeraltından" yazmak istemiyorum...”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Yer Altından Notlar
“she looked much younger than her age, indeed, which is almost always the case with women who retain serenity of spirit, sensitiveness and pure sincere warmth of heart to old age. We may add in parenthesis that to preserve all this is the only means of retaining beauty to old age.”
“On the contrary, complete atheism is more respectable than worldly indifference,” Tikhon answered, with visible gaiety and good-nature. “Oho, that’s how you get round it!” “A complete atheist stands on the last rung but one before absolute faith (he may or may not step higher), but an indifferent man has no longer any faith at all, nothing but an ugly fear, and that only on rare occasions, if he is a sentimental man.”
topics: atheism
“I want the money for myself, for in no way do I look upon my personality as necessary to, or meet to be given over to, capital. I may be wrong, but there you have it.”
“Ils s’étaient rencontrés dans la rue deux mois auparavant, mais Raskolnikoff était passé aussitôt sur l’autre trottoir pour n’être pas aperçu de Razoumikhine. Celui-ci remarqua fort bien son ami, mais, ne voulant pas le gêner, il feignit de ne pas le voir.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“Dans la suite de mon article, j’insiste, je m’en souviens, sur cette idée que tous les législateurs et les guides de l’humanité, en commençant par les plus anciens, pour continuer par Lycurgue, Solon, Mahomet, Napoléon, etc., que tous, sans exception, ont été des criminels, car en donnant de nouvelles lois, ils ont par cela même violé les anciennes, observées fidèlement par la société et transmises par les ancêtres; certainement ils ne reculaient pas non plus devant l’effusion du sang, dès qu’elle pouvait leur être utile. Il est même à remarquer que presque tous”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“Il m’est venu un jour à l’idée que si l’on voulait réduire un homme à néant, le punir atrocement, l’écraser tellement que le meurtrier le plus endurci tremblerait lui-même devant ce châtiment et s’effrayerait d’avance, il suffirait de donner à son travail un caractère de complète inutilité, voire même d’absurdité.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“C’est en ce sens que mon article leur reconnaît le droit au crime. (Vous vous rappelez que notre point de départ a été une question juridique.) D’ailleurs, il n’y a pas lieu de s’inquiéter beaucoup: presque jamais la masse ne leur concède ce droit, elle les décapite et les pend (plus ou moins), et par là elle remplit très-justement sa mission conservatrice jusqu’au jour, il est vrai, ou cette même masse érige des statues aux suppliciés et les vénère (plus ou moins). Le”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“Ces incapables exécuteurs de la loi ne comprennent nullement qu’appliquer la loi sans en comprendre l’esprit, mène tout droit aux désordres. — «La loi le dit, que voulez-vous de plus?» Ils s’étonnent même sincèrement qu’on exige d’eux, outre l’exécution de la loi, du bon sens et une tête saine. La dernière condition surtout leur parait superflue, elle est pour eux d’un luxe révoltant, cela leur semble une vexation, de l’intolérance.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“«Les instincts d’un bourreau existent en germe dans chacun de nos contemporains.»”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“Ensuite j’ai reconnu, Sonia, que si l’on attendait le moment où tout le monde sera intelligent, on devrait s’armer d’une trop longue patience. Plus tard encore je me suis convaincu que ce moment même n’arriverait jamais, que les hommes ne changeraient pas et qu’on perdait son temps à essayer de les modifier! Oui, c’est ainsi! C’est leur loi… Je sais maintenant, Sonia, que le maître chez eux est celui qui possède une intelligence puissante. Qui ose beaucoup a raison à leurs yeux. Qui les brave et les méprise s’impose à leur respect! C’est ce qui s’est toujours vu et se verra toujours! Il faudrait être aveugle pour ne pas s’en apercevoir!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
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Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, perhaps most recognized today for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for existentialism ever written."
His tombstone reads "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." from John 12:24, which is also the epigraph of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.