Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821–81) was a Russian novelist and journalist. He had a profound influence on succeeding Russian literature and thought. He is the most widely read and influential of all Russian authors.
Though known mainly as a journalist in his lifetime, Dostoyevsky’s enduring works were the novels in which he discerned the deep recesses of the human mind. In each Dostoyevsky novel, the criminal becomes an epitome of an unusually modern psychological condition of alienation and self-destruction.
Born in Moscow, Dostoyevsky entered the army as an engineer but quit to write in 1844. He was sentenced to death in 1849 for revolutionary activities but earned an acquittal just before execution. The imminence of death made a deep impression on him. He endured 10 years of exile, four at a labor camp working in chains in a log house, and six as a common soldier at a Siberian frontier post near the Mongolian border. He described the agonies he experienced in custody in The House of the Dead (1862.)
Dostoevsky developed a radical conservative philosophy anchored in his premise of humanity’s inherent depravity, the decay of the West, and a belief in Russian nationalism and simple Christianity.
Dostoevsky’s four legendary novels—Crime and Punishment (1866; Prestupleniye I Nakazaniye,) The Idiot (1868; Idiot,) The Possessed (1872; Besy,) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880; Brat’ya Karamazovy)—reveal his psychological insight, savage humor, and concern with the religious, political, and moral problems posed by human suffering.
Crime and Punishment is the story of Raskolnikov, a young intellectual in 19th century St. Petersburg, who is consumed with guilt after he kills a pawnbroker and her sister. The Idiot is the tale of Prince Myshkin, whose naive and trusting nature precipitates disaster for the people around him. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha come to represent three different responses to their inner conflict—the sensual, intellectual, and the religious—and only the last provides a satisfactory answer finally.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It is easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Nationality, Nation, Nationalism, Nationalities
The most pressing question on the problem of faith is whether a man, as a civilized being, can believe in the divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for therein rests the whole of our faith.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Christianity
Change is what people fear most.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Change
It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Gratitude
Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Blessings, Humanity, Humankind, Happiness
Realists do not fear the results of their study.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Reality
The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Habit, Habits
A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Loss, Losing, Losers
The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Purpose
Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Work
Originality and the feeling of one’s own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Shower on him every blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, give him economic prosperity such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes, and busy himself with the continuation of the species, and even then, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Deception/Lying, Lying, Lies
In the realist, faith is not born from miracles, but miracles from faith.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Miracles
We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them – the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The formula “two and two make five” is not without its attractions.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Reality
Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity
Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Fear, Courage, People, Action
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lies comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, around him, and so loses all respect for himself and others.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Truth
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.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Laughter
You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Memory
At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Love
Inventors and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning – and very often at the end – of their careers.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Beginnings
In order to love simply, it is necessary to know how to show love.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Romance
Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand of it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Perception, Love
We have taken the sword of Caesar, and in taking it, of course, have rejected Thee (Jesus) and followed him (Satan.)
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Peace
Man is a pliant animal—a being who gets accustomed to anything.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Acceptance
To be too conscious is an illness – a real thoroughgoing illness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Disease, Sickness, Self-Discovery
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