Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Nothing's amusing that isn't spiteful.”

“So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and painfully as to find someone to worship. But man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it. For these pitiful creatures are concerned not only to find what one or the other can worship, but to find community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and of all humanity from the beginning of time.”

“Low ceilings and tiny rooms cramp the soul and the mind.”

“Elemen terpenting kita bukan pada otak. Namun, pada apa yang menuntun otak kita--kepribadian, hati, kebaikan, dan ide-ide progresif”

“أنتم تعرفون أيها السادة أن العقل شيء ممتاز، وليس في ذلك من شك، ولكن العقل ليس أكثر من عقل، وهو لا يشبع إلا الناحية العقلية من طبيعة الانسان، في حين أن الارادة هي كشف عن الحياة كلها، أي الحياة الانسانية كلها، بما فيها العقل وجميع الدوافع. وبالرغم من أن حياتنا، في هذا الكشف عنها، غالباً ما تكون تافهة، إلا أنها ما تزال حياة، وهي ليست في بساطة استخراج الجذور التربيعية، فأنا مثلا أريد أن أعيش ، ليكون في امكاني إشباع كل امكانياتي الحياتية، لا امكانيتي العقلية وحسب”

“If one waits for everyone to get wiser it will take too long.”

“There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God. The Brothers Karamazov Book VI - The Russian Monk, Chapter 3 - Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima.”

“people do get carried away and make mistakes, but one must have indulgence; those mistakes are merely evidence of enthusiasm for the cause and of abnormal external environment”

“Life everywhere is life, life is in ourselves and not in the external. There will be people near me, and to be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter- this is what life is, herein lies its task. I have come to recognize this. This idea has entered into my flesh and blood. Yes, it's true! That head which created, lived b the hightes life of art, which acknowledged and had come to know the highest demands of the spirit, that head has been cut from my shoulders. Memory remains, and the images I have created and still not molded in flesh. They will leave their harsh mark on me, it is true! But my heart is left me, and the same flesh and blood which likewise can love and suffer and desire and remember, and this is, after all, life. on voit le soleil!”

“he seemed to be trying to find his way somewhere, but had forgotten where.”

“My God, but what do I care about the laws of nature and arithmetic if for some reason these laws and two times two is four are not to my liking? To be sure, I won't break through such a wall with my forehead if I really have not got strength to do it, but neither will I be reconciled with it simply because I have a stone wall here and have not got strength enough.”

“А в самом деле: вот я теперь уж от себя задаю один праздный вопрос: что лучше — дешёвое ли счастие или возвышенные страдания? Ну-ка, что лучше?”

“أن الإنسان الطبيعي الحقيقي ينظر إلى انتقامه على أنه عدل ونقاء وبساطة، مدفوعاً إلى ذلك بحمقه الأصيل، بينما لا نجد الفأر المدرك لنفسه إدراكاً حاداً يفعل ذلك، لأنه لا يؤمن بوجود ذرة من العدالة في ذلك.”

“ولكني أكرر للمرة المائة أن هنالك حالة واحدة، واحدة فقط، يرغب فيها الانسان رغبة مدركة عامدة فيما يضره، وفيما هو الحماقة بعينها – لأنه، ببساطة، يريد أن يمتلك الحق في أن يرغب لنفسه حتى حين يكون من الحماقة جداً أن يرغب فيما هو معقول في حين أن ذلك غير مفروض عليه.”

“In spite of the momentary desire he had just been feeling for company of any sort, on being actually spoken to he felt immediately his habitual irritable and uneasy aversion for any stranger who approached or attempted to approach him.”

“To confess one's guilt and one's original sin is little, very little; one must wean oneself away from them completely. And that takes more than a little time.”

“Man is bound to lie about himself”

“Los verdaderos grandes hombres deben de experimentar, a mi entender, una gran tristeza en este mundo”

“There are... things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind”

“Beware of the love of women; beware of that ecstasy - that slow poison.”