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a6a17cb
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He was one of those idealistic beings common in Russia, who are suddenly struck by some overmastering idea which seems, as it were, to crush them at once, and sometimes for ever. They are never equal to coping with it, but put passionate faith in it, and their whole life passes afterwards, as it were, in the last agonies under the weight of the stone that has fallen upon them and half crushed them. In
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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8eeab72
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The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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2ba9e8e
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I am a ridiculous person. Now they call me a madman. That would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as before. But now I do not resent it, they are all dear to me now, even when they laugh at me -- and, indeed, it is just then that they are particularly dear to me. I could join in their laughter -- not exactly at myself, but through affection for them, if I did not feel so sad as I look at them.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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7918366
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But it's a misfortune to be broad without a special genius.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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f999cd1
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I was always conscious of that weak point of mine, and sometimes very much afraid of it. "I exaggerate everything, that is where I go wrong."
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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e68db28
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There's the Holy Ghost and there's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can appear as other birds- sometimes as a swallow, sometimes a goldfinch and sometimes as a blue-tit." "How do you know him from an ordinary tit?" "He speaks." "How does he speak, in what language?" "Human language." "And what does he tell you?" "Why, to-day he told me that a fool would visit me and would ask me unseemly questions. You"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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eb0bc7b
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People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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f7926c0
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Yes, one day perhaps the leading intellects of Russia and of Europe will study the psychology of Russian crime, for the subject is worth it. But
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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9e783a2
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It is true, perhaps, that this instrument which had stood the test of a thousand years for the moral regeneration of a man from slavery to freedom and to moral perfectibility may be a two-edged weapon and it may lead some not to humility and complete self-control but to the most Satanic pride, that is, to bondage and not to freedom. The
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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9d7329d
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Why is it--as I've noticed," Stepan Trofimovitch whispered to me once, "why is it that all these desperate socialists and communists are at the same time such incredible skinflints, so avaricious, so keen over property, and, in fact, the more socialistic, the more extreme they are, the keener they are over property... why is it? Can that, too, come from sentimentalism?" I"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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108bcc4
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n lqsw@ lty 'qtrfh `mdan lm tSdr `n qlby bl Sdrt `n r'sy lkhbyth lmryD.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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8c4d67d
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Grigory decided then, once for all, that "the woman's talking nonsense, for every woman is dishonest,"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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02e5ac4
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At once I drink to the health of the artist who painted the picture worthy of Gay, because I love all that is "sublime and beautiful." --
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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6b6fffa
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Don't quarrel with your bread and butter." "They"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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956e5f4
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Good God! Can it be, can it be, that I shall really take an axe, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open ... that I shall tread in the sticky warm blood, break the lock, steal and tremble; hide, all spattered in the blood ... with the axe ... Good God, can it be?
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power-of-will
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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882f529
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Fyodor Pavlovich learned of his wife's death when he was drunk; it was said that he ran out into the street with his hands raised to heaven in joy, shouting: 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant...';* others say he wept convulsively like a child, so much so that, despite all the revulsion he aroused, he was pitiful to behold. Very probably, both accounts are true--that is, he rejoiced in his liberation and shed tears for his liberator at one..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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d29745b
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that men won't change and that nobody can alter it and that it's not worth wasting effort over it. Yes, that's so. That's the law of their nature, Sonia,... that's so!... And I know now, Sonia, that whoever is strong in mind and spirit will have power over them. Anyone who is greatly daring is right in their eyes. He who despises most things will be a lawgiver among them and he who dares most of all will be most in the right! So it has been..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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6de268a
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Je voulais vous exposer mon livre aussi succinctement que possible; mais je vois qu'il me faudra y joindre encore quantite d'explications verbales. Mon expose exigera donc au moins dix soirees d'apres le nombre de chapitres de mon livre. (Il y eut quelques rires.) De plus, je dois vous prevenir que mon systeme n'est pas completement acheve. (Nouveaux rires.) Je me suis embrouille dans mes propres donnees et ma conclusion se trouve en contra..
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philosophy
les-démons
despotism
liberty
russia
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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cd48d2c
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I have a longing for life, and I go on living in spite of logic.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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bd86cd4
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well, legislators and leaders of men, such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without exception criminals, from the very fact that, making a new law, they transgressed the ancient one, handed down from their ancestors and held sacred by the people, and they did not stop short at bloodshed either, if that bloodshed--often of innocent persons fighting bravely in defence of ancient law--were
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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fb5ac91
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I do not wish to believe and I cannot believe that evil is the normal state of humanity.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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d98d0e8
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I, for instance, have a great deal of AMOUR PROPRE. I am as suspicious and prone to take offence as a humpback or a dwarf.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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38595e1
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It's remarkable, in fact, that the majority, indeed, of these benefactors and leaders of humanity were guilty of terrible carnage. In short, I maintain that all great men or even men a little out of the common, that is to say capable of giving some new word, must from their very nature be criminals--more or less, of course. Otherwise it's hard for them to get out of the common rut; and to remain in the common rut is what they can't submit t..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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8fb3fbe
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As soon as Russians feel the ground under their feet and are confident that they have reached firm ground, they are so delighted at reaching it that they rush at once to the furthest limit. Why is that? You are surprised at Pavlishtchev, and you put it down to madness on his part, or to simplicity. But it's not that! And Russian intensity in such cases is a surprise not to us only but to all Europe. If one of us turns Catholic, he is bound ..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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0ee3199
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It does happen sometimes that a person commits a villainy and praises himself for it, elevating his villainy to the level of a principle, and claiming that and the light of civilization are precisely expressed in that abomination; the unfortunate one ends by believing this sincerely, blindly and honestly.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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590300b
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This life you cry up so much is what I wanted to extinguish by suicide, whereas my dream, my dream--oh, it has revealed to me a great, new, regenerated intensity of life!
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suicide
life
revelation
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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5fb7156
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Alas, I had always loved sorrow and grief, but only for myself, for myself; for them I wept in my pity. I stretched out my arms to them in my despair, accusing, cursing, and despising myself. I told them that I had done all this, I alone, that I had brought them corruption, contagion, and lies!
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grief
sorrow
despair
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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bd1913a
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I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labour and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a ..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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88a039a
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I mean to go on in my sins to the end, let me tell you. For sin is sweet; all abuse it, but all men live in it, only others do it on the sly, and I openly.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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6988bc9
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Upon my word," cried my adversary, annoyed, "if you did not want to fight, why did not you let me alone?" "Yesterday I was a fool, to-day I know better," I answered him gayly. "As to yesterday, I believe you, but as for to-day, it is difficult to agree with your opinion,"said he. "Bravo," I cried, clapping my hands. "I agree with you there too. I have deserved it!"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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a30de9b
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Don't be afraid of life. How good life is when one does somethings good and just.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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f57361a
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Though I have said that I envy the normal man to the last drop of my bile, yet I should not care to be in his place such as he is now (though I shall not cease envying him). No, no; anyway the underground life is more advantageous. There, at any rate, one can ... Oh, but even now I am lying! I am lying because I know myself that it is not underground that is better, but something different, quite different, for which I am thirsting, but whi..
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underground
lie
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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6981ad7
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Love one another, Fathers," said Father Zossima, as far as Alyosha could remember afterwards. "Love God's people. Because we have come here and shut ourselves within these walls, we are no holier than those that are outside, but on the contrary, from the very fact of coming here, each of us has confessed to himself that he is worse than others, than all men on earth... And the longer the monk lives in his seclusion, the more keenly he must ..
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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eb6dbe6
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congratulated or "saved"?"
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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6c837f8
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Brother, let me ask one thing more: has any man a right to look at other men and decide which is worthy to live?
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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68d8921
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Be not comforted. Consolation is not what you need. Weep and be not consoled, but weep.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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8eb3b4e
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which traditionally aspires to advance virtue by laying vice bare.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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c9c2c95
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The exposure of the conspiracy, the thanks from Petersburg, a career in the future, the influence of 'kindness' on the young people to keep them from falling into the abyss -- all this coexisted in complete harmony in her fantastic head.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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124ee58
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Don't they understand that in order to acquire an opinion what is needed first of all is labor, one's own labor, one's own initiative and experience! Nothing can ever be acquired gratis. If
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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bd96430
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I understand only too well why Russians with means have all made tracks abroad... If the ship is about to sink, the rats are the first to desert it.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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c07c737
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Let life go hang, as long as these loved ones of ours are happy.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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7f9a3d4
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For broad understanding and deep feeling, you need pain and suffering. I believe really great men must experience great sadness in the world.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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1370912
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Hate not the atheists, the teachers of evil, the materialists- and I mean not only the good ones- for there are many good ones among them, especially in our day- hate not even the wicked ones.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
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a3785c2
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that's precisely what my novel is about. It's called Demons, and it's a description of how these demons entered the herd of swine.
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |