Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quotes

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

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

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

The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

I swear to you gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness.

The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.

I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there - that is living.

Beauty will save the world

Don’t let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

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

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.