Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“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”

“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.”

“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”

“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.”

“«Les instincts d’un bourreau existent en germe dans chacun de nos contemporains.»”

“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!”

“Moreover, I felt weak and in the right mood, and besides, shamming so easily coexists with sincere feeling.”

“The emptier a man's head is, for instance, the less he fells the thirst to fill it.”

“A husband ought to live at home, and not in a crocodile...”

“Yes, she's rather good-looking; I think she's good-looking. After all, she drives other men out of their mind. She's tall and svelte. Only she's very thin. I think you could tie her in a knot or bend her double.”

“Di me le dirò che sono figlio del mio secolo, figlio della miscredenza e del dubbio, e non solo fino ad oggi, ma tale resterò (lo so con certezza) fino alla tomba. Quali terribili sofferenze mi è costata – e mi costa tuttora – questa sete di credere, che tanto più fortemente si fa sentire nella mia anima quando più forti mi appaiono gli argomenti ad essa contrari! Ciononostante Iddio mi manda talora degl’istanti in cui mi sento perfettamente sereno; in quegli istanti io scopro di amare e di essere amato dagli altri, e appunto in quegl’istanti io ho concepito un simbolo della fede, un Credo, in cui tutto per me è chiaro e santo. Questo Credo è molto semplice, e suona così: credere che non c’è nulla di più bello, di più profondo, più simpatico, più ragionevole, più virile e più perfetto di Cristo; anzi non soltanto non c’è, ma addirittura, con geloso amore, mi dico che non ci può essere. Non solo, ma arrivo a dire che se qualcuno mi dimostrasse che Cristo è fuori dalla verità e se fosse effettivamente vero che la verità non è in Cristo, ebbene io preferirei restare con Cristo piuttosto che con la verità.”

“Por ello, a la pregunta formulada hace seis mil años por el Eclesiastés: «¿Quién ha podido jamás sondear las profundidades del abismo?», dos hombres entre todos los hombres tienen el derecho de responder ahora. El capitán Nemo y yo.”

“¿Sigues rogando a Dios, Rodia, crees en la misericordia de nuestro Creador y de nuestro Salvador? Sentiría en el alma que te hubieras contaminado de esa enfermedad de moda que se llama ateísmo. Si es así, piensa que ruego por ti. Acuérdate, querido, de cuando eras niño; entonces, en presencia de tu padre, que aún vivía, tú balbuceabas tus oraciones sentado en mis rodillas. Y todos éramos felices”

“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.”

“Handa genç bir kadınla yaptığı konuşmayı anımsadı. Çocuğun var mı sorusuna bu güzel genç kadın neşeyle şu yanıtı vermişti: - Bir tane kız vardı, Tanrı beni kurtardı, Geçen oruçta gömdüm. - Çok üzülmüşsündür, değil mi? -diye sormuştu Darya Aleksandrovna. - Neden üzüleyim? İhtiyarın o kadar çok torunu var ki. Dertten başka bir şey değil. Ne çalışabilirsin, ne iş yapabilirsin. Sadece ayak bağı. Genç kadının iyilik dolu sevimli yüzüne rağmen bu yanıt Darya Aleksandrovna'ya çok iğrenç gelmişti, ama şimdi elinde olmadan bu sözleri anımsıyordu. Bu arsız sözlerde gerçeklik payı da vardı. On beş yıllık evlilik hayatını gözden geçiren Darya Aleksandrovna "Evet, genel olarak hamilelik, bulantı, zihin uyuşukluğu, her şeye karşı ilgisizlik ve en önemlisi de çirkinleşmeyle geçiyor, -diye düşünüyordu.- Gencecik, güzel Kiti bile bozuldu, bense hamilelikte çirkinleşiyorum, bunu biliyorum. Doğum, sancılar, korkunç sancılar, o son dakika... sonra emzirme, o uykusuz geceler, o korkunç ağrılar..." Darya Aleksandrovna hemen hemen her bebekte yaşadığı çatlayan meme uçlarının acısını yalnızca anımsamakla bile ürpermişti. "Sonra çocukların hastalıkları, o sonsuz korku; sonra çocukların yetiştirilmesi, kötü huyları (küçük Maşa'nın ahududu toplarken işlediği suçu anımsadı), öğrenimleri, Latince... Bunların hepsi ne kadar anlaşılmaz ve zor. Hepsinin üstüne bir de bu çocukların ölümü." Ve hayalinde tekrar ana yüreğini her zaman ezen, difteriden kaybettiği en son oğlunun ölümü, bebeğin gömülmesi, bu küçük pembe tabuta karşı herkesin aldırmazlığı ve üzerindeki sırmalı haçıyla pembe kapağını kapattıkları anda tabutun içinde görünen şakakları lüle lüle, soluk alnın, hayretle açılmış minik ağzın karşısında yüreğini parçalayan yapayalnız acısı canlandı.”

“Reasoning had brought him to doubt, and prevented him from seeing what he ought to do and what he ought not. When he did not think, but simply lived, he was continually aware of the presence of an infallible judge in his soul, determining which of two possible courses of action was the better and which was the worse, and as soon as he did not act rightly, he was at once aware of it.”

“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.”

“I have heard it said that women love men even for their vices," Anna began suddenly, "but I hate him for his virtues. I can't live with him. Do you understand? the sight of him has a physical effect on me, it makes me beside myself. I can't, I can't live with him. What am I to do? I have been unhappy, and used to think one couldn't be more unhappy, but the awful state of things I am going through now, I could never have conceived. Would you believe it, that knowing he's a good man, a splendid man, that I'm not worth his little finger, still I hate him. I hate him for his generosity. And there's nothing left for me but…”

“Everything presents itself to me, in the coarsest, most loathsome light.”

“The sight of his brother and the proximity of death renewed in Levin's soul that feeling of horror at the inscrutability, nearness and inevitability of death which had seized him on that autumn evening when his brother had arrived in the country. That feeling was now stronger even than before; he felt even less able than before to understand the meaning of death, and its inevitability appeared yet more terrible to him; but now, thanks to his wife's presence, that feeling did not drive him to despair; in spite of death, he felt the necessity of living and loving. He felt that love had saved him from despair, and that that love under the menace of despair grew still stronger and purer. Scarcely had the unexplained mystery of death been enacted before his eyes when another mystery just as inexplicable presented itself, calling to love and life. The doctor confirmed their supposition about Kitty. Her illness was pregnancy.”