Quotes by
Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
1821-1881 , Russian writer
Russian writer whose psychological penetration into the darkest recesses of the human heart, together with his unsurpassed moments of illumination, had an immense influence on 20th-century literature. Dostoyevsky is usually regarded as one of the finest novelists who ever lived. Literary modernism, existentialism, and various schools of psychology, theology, and literary criticism have been profoundly shaped by his ideas.
| 49 quotes | 19,465 visits |
Quotations
| • | A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else. 64 |
| • | The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison. 43 |
| • | You were destined for me. Perhaps as a punishment. 25 |
| • | Killing myself was a matter of such indifference to me that I felt like waiting for a moment when it would make some difference. 24 |
| • | Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. 21 |
| • | The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. 16 |
| • | Without god everything is allowed. 16 |
| • | The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in. 15 |
| • | Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody thinks about changing himself. 15 |
| • | 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. 14 |
| • | Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery. 13 |
| • | Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him. 13 |
| • | The life of a woman is an endless search for a master. 12 |
| • | To be in love is not the same as loving. You can be in love with a woman and still hate her. 10 |
| • | A beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel. 10 |
| • | 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. 9 |
| • | The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful. 9 |
| • | Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. 9 |
| • | How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself? 9 |
| • | Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him. 8 |
| • | The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. 7 |
| • | I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness. 7 |
| • | If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man ... just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man. 7 |
| • | I swear to you gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness. 7 |
| • | A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof. 7 |
| • | Forgive me... for my love –for ruining you with my love. 7 |
| • | Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. 7 |
| • | Everything passes, only truth remains. 7 |
| • | It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently. 6 |
| • | Right or wrong, it's very pleasant to break something from time to time. 6 |
| • | Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you. 6 |
| • | The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence. 6 |
| • | If you want to be respected by others, the important thing is to respect yourself. 5 |
| • | Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. 5 |
| • | A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart. 5 |
| • | Is it really not possible to touch the gaming table without being instantly infected by superstition? 4 |
| • | Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it — that is what you must do. 4 |
| • | The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man. 4 |
| • | To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. 4 |
| • | They won't let me ... I can't be ... good! 4 |
| • | Oh, how unbearable is a happy person sometimes! 4 |
| • | I’ve never been a coward at heart, although I’ve always been a coward in action. 4 |
| • | Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. It's only that. 3 |
| • | Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness. 3 |
| • | They were like two enemies in love with one another. 3 |
| • | Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice. 3 |
| • | It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. 3 |
| • | I almost do not exist now and I know it; God knows what lives in me in place of me. 3 |
| • | In most cases, people, even wicked people, are far more naive and simple-hearted than one generally assumes. And so are we. 2 |
