Inspirational Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“He's right!" she said; "of course, he's always right; he's a Christian, he's generous! Yes, vile, base creature! And no one understands it except me, and no one ever will; and I can't explain it. They say he's so religious, so high-principled, so upright, so clever; but they don't see what I've seen. They don't know how he has crushed my life for eight years, crushed everything that was living in me—he has not once even thought that I'm a live woman who must have love. They don't know how at every step he's humiliated me, and been just as pleased with himself. Haven't I striven, striven with all my strength, to find something to give meaning to my life? Haven't I struggled to love him, to love my son when I could not love my husband? But the time came when I knew that I couldn't cheat myself any longer, that I was alive, that I was not to blame, that God has made me so that I must love and live. And now what does he do? If he'd killed me, if he'd killed him, I could have borne anything, I could have forgiven anything; but, no, he…. How was it I didn't guess what he would do? He's doing just what's characteristic of his mean character. He'll keep himself in the right, while me, in my ruin, he'll drive still lower to worse ruin yet…”
“Well, there’s nothing to be done … It’s not my fault. But now everything shall go on in a new way. It’s nonsense to pretend that life won’t allow it, that the past won’t allow it. One must struggle to live better, much better.”
“Afterward I could not help admiring the discrimination of the host and hostess in the distribution of the children’s presents. The little girl, who had already a portion of three hundred thousand rubles, received the costliest doll. Then followed presents diminishing in value in accordance with the rank of the parents of these happy children; finally, the child of lowest degree, a thin, freckled, red-haired little boy of ten, got nothing but a book of stories about the marvels of nature and tears of devotion, etc., without pictures or even woodcuts. He was the son of a poor widow, the governess of the children of the house, an oppressed and scared little boy. He was dressed in a short jacket of inferior nankeen. After receiving his book he walked around the other toys for a long time; he longed to play with the other children, but did not dare; it was evident that he already felt and understood his position. I”
“Now he experienced a feeling akin to that of a man who, while calmly crossing a bridge over a precipice, should suddenly discover that the bridge is broken, and that there is a chasm below. That chasm was life itself, the bridge that artificial life in which Aleksey Aleksandrovich had lived. For the first time the question presented itself to him of the possibility of his wife’s loving someone else, and he was horrified at it.”
“..а един друг глас в душата му казваше,че човек не трябва да се подчинява на миналото и че може да направи всичко със себе си.”
“for him all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class—all the girls in the world except her, and those girls with all sorts of human weaknesses, and very ordinary girls: the other class—she alone, having no weaknesses of any sort and higher than all humanity.”
“Ba am o religie, religia mea, sunt chiar mai religios decât ei toţi, cu maimuţărelile şi cu jongleriile lor! Tocmai că-l slăvesc pe Dumnezeu. Cred în Fiinţa supremă, într-un Creator, oricare ar fi el, puţin îmi pasă, care ne-a lăsat aici pe pământ ca să ne ducem la bun sfârşit datoria de cetăţean şi de cap de familie; dar n-am nevoie să intru într-o biserică, să sărut talgere de argint şi să îngraş din buzunarul meu o adunătură de pişicheri care mănâncă mai îndestulat ca noi! Fiindcă îl poţi cinsti la fel de bine şi într-o pădure, pe câmp sau chiar contemplând tăriile, aşa cum făceau anticii. Dumnezeul meu este Dumnezeul lui Socrate, al lui Franklin, al lui Voltaire şi al lui Beranger! Eu sunt pentru Profesiunea de credinţă a vicarului savoyard şi pentru nemuritoarele principii de la 89! De aceea nu accept un moşulică Doamne-Doamne, care se plimbă prin grădina lui cu toiagul în mână, care-şi găzduieşte prietenii în burţile balenelor, moare ţipând şi învie după trei zile: lucruri absurde în sine şi care, de altminteri, contrazic toate legile fizicii; ceea ce ne dovedeşte, în treacăt, că popii s-au bălăcit întotdeauna într-o ignoranţă abjectă, în care se străduiesc să cufunde şi populaţiile.”
topics: dumnezeu-religie
“Embora ele estivesse separado dela, não a tinha abandonado, estava ali, e as paredes da casa pareciam guardar a sombra dele.”
“They get a glimpse of red lips under a short veil, and exquisite little feet.”
“Let me speak at last,” she said. “For myself personally, I can’t conceive of love without family life. I am lonely, lonely as the moon in the sky, and a waning moon, too, and whatever you may say, I am convinced, I feel that this waning can only be restored by love in its ordinary sense. It seems to me that such love would define my duties, my work, make clear my conception of life. I want from love peace in soul, tranquility; I want the very opposite of musk, and spiritualism, and fin de siècle … in short”—she grew embarrassed—”a husband and children.”
“There was no fire in the fireplace, the clock was still ticking, and Emma felt vaguely amazed that all those things should be so calm when there was such turmoil inside her.”
“It seemed to her that certain places on the earth must yield happiness, like a plant peculiar to that soil and growing poorly anywhere else.”
topics: happiness
“Chr.: Apollyon, beware what you do, for I am in the King’s High-way, the way of Holiness, therefore take heed to yourself. Apol.: Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, I am void of fear in this matter, prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal Den, that thou shalt go no further; here will I spill thy soul. And with that he threw a flaming Dart at his breast, but Christian had a Shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that. Christian wounded in his understanding, faith, and conversation Then did Christian draw, for he saw ’twas time to bestir him: and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing Darts as thick as Hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot: This made Christian give a little back; Apollyon therefore followed his work amain, and Christian again took courage, and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore Combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent; for you must know that Christian, by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker. Apollyon casteth down to the ground Christian Christian’s victory over Apollyon Then Apollyon espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that Christian’s Sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, I am sure of thee now: and with that he had almost pressed him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life: but as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly stretched out his hand for his Sword, and caught it, saying, Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy! when I fall I shall arise; and with that gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound: Christian, perceiving that, made at him again, saying, Nay, in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us. And with that Apollyon spread forth his Dragon’s wings, and sped him away, that Christian for a season saw him no more.”
“«Les instincts d’un bourreau existent en germe dans chacun de nos contemporains.»”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky ,
from Œuvres majeures
“But what I say is, that if you convince a person logically that he has nothing to cry about, he'll stop crying. That's clear. Is it your conviction that he won't?" "Life would be too easy if it were so," answered Raskolnikov.”
“But they are foolish as well as inexcusable, especially if they are no longer humane, for it is precisely the humanity, affability, and brotherly compassion of a doctor which prove the most efficacious remedies for his patients.”
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Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer, essayist and philosopher, perhaps most recognized today for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called by Walter Kaufmann the "best overture for existentialism ever written."
His tombstone reads "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." from John 12:24, which is also the epigraph of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.