Originality and the feeling of one’s own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Communication
If the people around you are spiteful and callous and will not hear you, fall down before them and beg their forgiveness; for in truth you are to blame for their not wanting to hear you.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Age, Aging, Forgiveness
There is no fact that cannot be vulgarized and presented in a ludicrous light.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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 the realist, faith is not born from miracles, but miracles from faith.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Miracles
Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Happiness
The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Happiness
In order to love simply, it is necessary to know how to show love.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Romance
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Civilization
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
Realists do not fear the results of their study.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Reality
Even if we are occupied with important things and even if we attain honor or fall into misfortune, still let us remember how good it once was here, when we were all together, united by a good and a kind feeling which made us perhaps better than we are.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Memory
It is easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Nationalities, Nationality, Nationalism, Nation
Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Adversity, Difficulties
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: Love, Perception
Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Work
It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Gratitude
To be too conscious is an illness – a real thoroughgoing illness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Sickness, Disease, Self-Discovery
There are… things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Self-Discovery
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
Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Purpose
We are all happy, if we only knew it.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Happiness
Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Cynicism
Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: Ideas
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Topics: People, Action, Fear, Courage
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
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
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Leo Tolstoy Russian Novelist
- Anton Chekhov Russian Short Story Writer
- Nikolai Berdyaev Russian Christian Philosopher
- Catherine II of Russia Russian Empress
- Maxim Gorky Russian Writer
- Konstantin Stanislavski Russian Actor
- Anna Pavlova Russian Ballerina
- Nikita Khrushchev Russian Head of State
- Sophie Swetchine Russian Mystic, Writer
- Robert A. Heinlein American Science Fiction Writer
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