Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quotes

Russian novelist, philosopher, short story writer, essayist, and journalist

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What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Pain & 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 Dostoyevsky

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The soul is healed by being with children.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Yet, I didn’t understand that she was intentionally disguising her feelings with sarcasm; that was usually the last resort of people who are timid and chaste of heart, whose souls have been coarsely and impudently invaded; and who, until the last moment, refuse to yield out of pride and are afraid to express their own feelings to you.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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The more stupid one is, the closer one is to reality. The more stupid one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence squirms and hides itself. Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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You can be sincere and still be stupid.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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To think too much is a disease.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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 Dostoyevsky

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The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Compassion is the chief law of human existence.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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 Dostoyevsky

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To love someone means to see them as God intended them.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Man is a mystery. It needs to be unraveled, and if you spend your whole life unraveling it, don’t say that you’ve wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime?
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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 Dostoyevsky

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If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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I swear to you gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it … one must have the courage to dare.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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

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Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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 Dostoyevsky

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The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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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 Dostoyevsky

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To go wrong in one’s own way is better then to go right in someone else’s.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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But how could you live and have no story to tell?
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there – that is living.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Without God all things are permitted.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Right or wrong, it’s very pleasant to break something from time to time.
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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