Fyodor 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