Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

You can be sincere and still be stupid.

At first, art imitates life. Then life will imitate art.Then life will find its very existence from the arts.

The more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity.

Nothing is more seductive for a man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.

What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.

To love another person is to see them as God intended them to be.

Let us not forget that the reasons for human actions are usually incalculably more complex and diverse than we tend to explain them later, and are seldom clearly manifest.

People really do like seeing their best friends humiliated; a large part of the friendship is based on humiliation; and that is an old truth,well known to all intelligent people.

The death of a child is the greatest reason to doubt the existence of God.

Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him.

One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.

A hundred suspicions don't make a proof.

Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.

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?

The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

Paradise is hidden in each one of use, it is concealed within me too, right now, and if I wish, it will come for me in reality, tomorrow even, and for the rest of my life.

Above all, don't lie to yourself.

They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.

If you can put the question, 'Am I or am I not responsible for my acts?' then you are responsible.

Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.

Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.

I want to suffer and be purified by suffering!

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

A single day is sufficient for a man to discover what happiness is.

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

Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

Nature doesn't ask your permission; it doesn't care about your wishes, or whether you like its laws or not. You're obliged to accept it as it is, and consequently all its results as well.

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.

Love is such a priceless treasure that you can buy the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people's sins. Go, and do not be afraid.

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

Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms.

To begin with unlimited freedom is to end with unlimited despotism.

I've long stopped worrying about who invented whom - God man or man God.

Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.

In order to love simply, it is necessary to know how to show love.

I agree that two times two makes four is an excellent thing; but if we are dispensing praise, then two times two makes five is sometimes a most charming little thing as well.

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.

It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.

If there is no God, then I am God.

Believe to the end, even if all men went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness.

A new philosophy, a new way of life, is not given for nothing. It has to be paid dearly for and only acquired with much patience and great effort

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.

They won't let me ... I can't be ... good!

Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!

Man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic.

One must love life before loving its meaning ... yes, and when the love of life disappears, no meaning can console us.

Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.