Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Sorrow compressed my heart, and I felt I would die, and then well, then I woke up.

The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.

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

My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?

Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.

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

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

You can be sincere and still be stupid.

Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over other organisms.

The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.

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

Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy; it's only that.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.

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

Right or wrong, it's very pleasant to break something from time to time.

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

To love someone means to see them as God intended them.

It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt.

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

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

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

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering...

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

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

To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.

The soul is healed by being with children.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!.

The meaning of life is not to be found in logic, but in a feeling that you are at every moment a participant in an enormous mystery.

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

Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness.

Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own actions or lack of action.

Beauty will save the world.