Fyodor Dostoevsky
At such times I felt something was drawing me away, and I kept fancying that if I walked straight on, far, far away and reached that line where the sky and earth meet, there I should find the key to the mystery, there I should see a new life a thousand times richer and more turbulent than ours.Collection: Keys
We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'.Collection: Gogol
...to return to their 'native soil,' as they say, to the bosom, so to speak, of their mother earth, like frightened children, yearning to fall asleep on the withered bosom of their decrepit mother, and to sleep there for ever, only to escape the horrors that terrify them.Collection: Mother
God is the pain of the fear of deathCollection: Pain
And why are you so firmly, so triumphantly, convinced that only the normal and the positive--in other words, only what is conducive to welfare--is for the advantage of man? Is not reason in error as regards advantage? Does not man, perhaps, love something besides well-being? Perhaps he is just as fond of suffering? Perhaps suffering is just as great a benefit to him as well-being? Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering, and that is a fact.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Reality
What is hell?...The suffering that comes from the consciousness that one is no longer able to love.Collection: Suffering
What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning.Collection: Inspirational
For a woman, all resurrection, all salvation, from whatever perdition, lies in love; in fact, it is her only way to it.Collection: Lying
Man is a creative animal, doomed to strive toward a goal, engaged in full-time engineering.Collection: Animal
We do not understand that life is paradise, for it suffices only to wish to understand it, and at once paradise will appear in front of us in its beauty.Collection: Wish
Equality lies only in human moral dignity. ... Let there be brothers first, then there will be brotherhood, and only then will there be a fair sharing of goods among brothers.Collection: Brother
Just take a look around you: Blood is flowing in rivers and in such a jolly way you’d think it was champagne.Collection: Thinking
- What is a Socialist? - That's when all are equal and all have property in common, there are no marriages, and everyone has any religion and laws he likes best. You are not old enough to understand that yet.Collection: Law
It's the moon that makes it so still, weaving some mystery.Collection: Moon
There is nothing more alluring to man than freedom of conscience, but neither is there anything more agonizing.Collection: Men
There are chance meetings with strangers that interest us from the first moment, before a word is spoken.Collection: Firsts
Thus, as a result of heightened consciousness, a man feels as if it's all right if he's bad as long as he knows it- as though that were any consolation.Collection: Men
Humiliate the reason and distort the soul.Collection: Soul
Without a clear perception of his reasons for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with bread".Collection: Men
One could never judge a man without seeing him close, for oneself.Collection: Men
Love life more than the meaning of it?Collection: Love Life
It's in despair that you find the sharpest pleasures, particularly when you are most acutely aware of the hopelessness of your position.Collection: Despair
Perhaps a normal man is supposed to be stupid-how do we know? Perhaps it's even very beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
It's in the homes of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness.Collection: Home
If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others.Collection: Life
Everywhere I am the object of an unbelievable esteem, the interest in me is, quite simply, tremendous.Collection: Unbelievable
One man doesn't believe in god at all, while the other believes in him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!Collection: Believe
I think everyone must love life more than anything else in the world.' 'Love life more than the meaning of it?' 'Yes, certainly. Love it regardless of logic, as you say. Yes, most certainly regardless of logic, for only then will I grasp its meaning. That's what I've been vaguely aware of for a long time. Half your work is done, Ivan: you love life. Now you must try to do the second half and you are saved.Collection: Love Life
The more conscious I was of goodness and of all that was 'sublime and beautiful,'the more deeply I sank into my mire and the more ready I was to sink in it altogether.Collection: Beautiful