Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881), sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. [Русский]

Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea.

And there is only one higher idea on earth, and it is the idea of the immortality of the human soul, for all other “higher” ideas of life by which humans might live derive from that idea alone.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared.

And it was after that that I found out the truth.

I learnt the truth last November on the third of November, to be precise and I remember every instant since.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up.

Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself.

Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Two times two equals five is sometimes a very charming little thing.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

It was a marvelous night, the sort of night one only experiences when one is young.

The sky was so bright, and there were so many stars that, gazing upward, one couldn’t help wondering how so many whimsical, wicked people could live under such a sky.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

It was a marvelous night, the sort of night one only experiences when one is young.

The sky was so bright, and there were so many stars that, gazing upward, one couldn’t help wondering how so many whimsical, wicked people could live under such a sky.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

On our Earth we can only love with suffering and through suffering.

We cannot love otherwise, and we know of no other sort of love.

I want suffering in order to love.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The more stupid one is, the closer one is to reality.

The more stupid one is, the clearer one is.

Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence squirms and hides itself.

Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The more stupid one is, the closer one is to reality.

The more stupid one is, the clearer one is.

Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence squirms and hides itself.

Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin.

That is his punishment.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Only to live, to live and live!

Life, whatever it may be!

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. It’s by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I’m human

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

I love mankind, he said, “but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

The darker the night, the brighter the stars.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Although your mind works, your heart is darkened with depravity, and without a pure heart, there can be no complete and true consciousness.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Even toil will be a joy.

You may deny yourself bread for your children, and even that will be a joy.

They will love you for it afterward.

So, you are laying by for your future.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky