01
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
02
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
03
“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
04
“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
05
“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
06
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
08
“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, The Brothers Karamazov
09
“It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
10
“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
11
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
12
“The soul is healed by being with children.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
13
“People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
14
“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, Notes from Underground
15
“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
16
“I am a dreamer. I know so little of real life that I just can’t help re-living such moments as these in my dreams, for such moments are something I have very rarely experienced. I am going to dream about you the whole night, the whole week, the whole year. I feel I know you so well that I couldn’t have known you better if we’d been friends for twenty years. You won’t fail me, will you? Only two minutes, and you’ve made me happy forever. Yes, happy. Who knows, perhaps you’ve reconciled me with myself, resolved all my doubts.
When I woke up it seemed to me that some snatch of a tune I had known for a long time, I had heard somewhere before but had forgotten, a melody of great sweetness, was coming back to me now. It seemed to me that it had been trying to emerge from my soul all my life, and only now-
If and when you fall in love, may you be happy with her. I don’t need to wish her anything, for she’ll be happy with you. May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn’t such a moment sufficient for the whole of one’s life?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
17
“The world says: “You have needs — satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don’t hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.” This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
18
“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
19
“To love someone means to see them as God intended them.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
20
“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
21
“Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don’t say that you’ve wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
22
“Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
23
“Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering…”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
25
“I think the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
26
“It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
27
“To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
28
“I used to analyze myself down to the last thread, used to compare myself with others, recalled all the smallest glances, smiles and words of those to whom I’d tried to be frank, interpreted everything in a bad light, laughed viciously at my attempts ‘to be like the rest’ –and suddenly, in the midst of my laughing, I’d give way to sadness, fall into ludicrous despondency and once again start the whole process all over again – in short, I went round and round like a squirrel on a wheel.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
29
30
“This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
