Q - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Posted on 22nd January 2021
Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821 – 1881 was a Russian novelist and short-story writer, journalist and philosopher. He has become one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers with his works being translated into over 170 languages.
‘One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man’s laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man’
‘To live without Hope is to Cease to live’
‘There are things which a man is afraid to tell even himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind’
‘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’
‘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’
‘Without God all things are permitted’
‘The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month’
‘The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness’
‘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’
‘It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently’
‘Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness’
‘Realists do not fear the results of their study’
‘It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise’
‘The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons’
‘There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it’
‘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’
‘To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s’
‘The soul is healed by being with children’
‘To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise’
‘If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself’
‘Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think have great sadness on earth’
‘Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it’
‘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’
‘Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most’
‘When reason fails, the devil helps!’
‘Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case’
‘A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart’
‘Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice’
‘The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for’
‘This is my last message to you: In sorrow, seek happiness’
Share this post: