Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. (Ivan) Hold your tongue, or I'll kill you!(The devil) You'll kill me? No, excuse me, I will speak. I came to treat myself to that pleasure. Oh, I love the dreams of my ardent young friends, quivering with eagerness for life! 'There are new men,' you decided last spring, when you were meaning to come here, 'they propose to destroy everything and begin with cannibalism. Stupid fellows! they didn't ask my advice! I maintain that nothing need be destroyed, that we only need to destroy the idea of God in man, that's how we have to set to work. It's that, that we must begin with. Oh, blind race of men who have no understanding! As soon as men have all of them denied God -- and I believe that period, analogous with geological periods, will come to pass -- the old conception of the universe will fall of itself without cannibalism, and, what's more, the old morality, and everything will begin anew. Men will unite to take from life all it can give, but only for joy and happiness in the present world. Man will be lifted up with a spirit of divine Titanic pride and the man-god will appear. From hour to hour extending his conquest of nature infinitely by his will and his science, man will feel such lofty joy from hour to hour in doing it that it will make up for all his old dreams of the joys of heaven. Everyone will know that he is mortal and will accept death proudly and serenely like a god. His pride will teach him that it's useless for him to repine at life's being a moment, and he will love his brother without need of reward. Love will be sufficient only for a moment of life, but the very consciousness of its momentariness will intensify its fire, which now is dissipated in dreams of eternal love beyond the grave'... and so on and so on in the same style. Charming!Ivan sat with his eyes on the floor, and his hands pressed to his ears, but he began trembling all over. The voice continued.(The devil) The question now is, my young thinker reflected, is it possible that such a period will ever come? If it does, everything is determined and humanity is settled for ever. But as, owing to man's inveterate stupidity, this cannot come about for at least a thousand years, everyone who recognises the truth even now may legitimately order his life as he pleases, on the new principles. In that sense, 'all things are lawful' for him. What's more, even if this period never comes to pass, since there is anyway no God and no immortality, the new man may well become the man-god, even if he is the only one in the whole world, and promoted to his new position, he may lightheartedly overstep all the barriers of the old morality of the old slaveman, if necessary. There is no law for God. Where God stands, the place is holy. Where I stand will be at once the foremost place... 'all things are lawful' and that's the end of it! That's all very charming; but if you want to swindle why do you want a moral sanction for doing it? But that's our modern Russian all over. He can't bring himself to swindle without a moral sanction. He is so in love with truth-. The Brothers Karamazov

2. Here is a commandment for you: seek happiness in sorrow. Work, work tirelessly. The Brothers Karamazov

3. How could I alone have invented it or imagined it in my dream? Could my petty heart and fickle, trivial mind have risen to such a revelation of truth? The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

4. 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. The Brothers Karamazov

5. Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely. Crime and Punishment

6. It is man's unique privilege, among all other organisms. By pursuing falsehood you will arrive at the truth! Crime and Punishment

7. Oh, how unbearable is a happy person sometimes! White Nights

8. originality and a feeling of one's own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle.

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

10. إن في مقدور الإنسان أن يخبر الطفل بكل شيء. كل شيء. وكثيراً ما أذهلتني حقيقة أن الآباء لا يعرفون عن أبنائهم إلا القليل. ليس عليهم أن يخفوا عنهم الكثير لأن الأطفال حتى الصغار منهم يدركون تماماً أن الآباء يخفون عنهم أشياء كثيرة لأنهم يرونهم أصغر من أن يفهموها! إن في إمكان الأطفال أن يقدموا النصيحة في أشد الأمور أهمية. فكيف يمكن للمرء أن يخدع هذه الطيور الصغيرة العزيزة عندما يتطلعون إليه في ثقة ولطف؟ إنني أسميهم طيوراً لأنه لا يوجد في الدنيا أجمل من الطيور

11. - В Апокалипсиса ангелът се кълне, че вече няма да има време. - Знам. Това там е много вярно; ясно и точно. Когато човекът достигне щастието, няма да има вече време, защото не е нужно. Много вярна мисъл.- Къде ще го дянат? - Никъде няма да го дяват. Времето не е предмет, а идея. Ще угасне в ума. Demons

12. …everyone needs a somewhere, a place he can go. There comes a time, you see, inevitably there comes a time you have to have a somewhere you can go! Crime and Punishment

13. But we havescience, and by the means of it we shall find the truth and weshall arrive at it consciously. Knowledge is higher thanfeeling, the consciousness of life is higher than life. Sciencewill give us wisdom, wisdom will reveal the laws, and theknowledge of the laws of happiness is higher thanhappiness. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

14. For everyone now strives most of all to seperate his person, wishing to experience the fullness of life within himself, and yet what comes of all his efforts is not the fullness of life, but full suicide, for instead of the fullness of self-definition, they fall into complete isolation. The Brothers Karamazov

15. For, having begun to build their Tower of Babel without us, they will end in anthropophagy. And it is then that the beast will come crawling to us and lick our feet and spatter them with tears of blood from its eyes. And we shall sit upon the beast and raise the cup, and on it will be written: "Mystery! The Brothers Karamazov

16. how anxiously I yearned for those I had forsaken. The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

17. If you want to know a person thoroughly, you must go slowly and carefully, so as to avoid mistakes and prejudices, which are always difficult to correct or eradicate afterwards. Crime and Punishment

18. Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, 'I am doing God's will on earth. The Brothers Karamazov

19. originality and a feeling of one's own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle.

20. إن أمثال هؤلاء الناس يستعملون جميع ما أوتوا من غرائز ليستخفوا بالإخرين وليسخروا منهم، فأحكامهم عمياء وصلفهم مفرط لا حدود له. إنهم لا يزيدون على رصد أخطاء من حولهم، ومراقبة مافيهم من جوانب الضعف. وإذا كانت طيبتهم لا تفوق طيبة محارة من محار الماء فإن معاشرتهم للأخرين يحكمها الحذر ويسيطر عليها الحب التروى والتبصر، وهم بذلك فخورون، وأنهم لإقتناعهم بأن البشر كافة باستثنائهم أناس حمقى يستطعون هم عند الحاجة أن يعصروهم كما تعصر برتقالة أو إسفنجة، فإنهم يحسبون أنفسهم سادة العالم، يحسبون العالم مدينا لهم مرهونا بهم متوقفا عليهم، وإنهم يعتبرون هذا الوضع ثمرة ما يملكون من ذكاء وما يتصفون به من خلق قوى وإرادة صلبة وطبع فذ، وهم في صلفهم هذا الذي لا حدود له لا يسلمون لهم عيوبا أو أخطاء... إنهم يشبهون هؤلاء الأوغاد أمثال تارتوف أو فالستاف الذين ينتهون إلى الإقتناع من فرط ما خادعوا ومكروا وغشوا بأن من حقهم أن يظهروا مختالين ثم هم من فرط ما أقنعو الأخرين بذلك أصبحوا يعتقدون مخلصين بأنهم أناس شرفاء مستقمون. إنهم لا يملكون الوسائل الضرورية لإمتحان ضميرهم إمتحانا صادقا كريما، ولنقد أنفسهم نقدا نزيها نبيلا، إن جلودهم أسمك وأغلظ من أن تتقبل مثل هذا الإمتحان أو مثل هذا النقد. إن شخصيتهم الفذة وذاتهم المتقوقة هما في نظرهم أشبه بإله العمونين (مولوك) أو إله الفينقيين (جعل) فما وجدت الطبيعة العظيمة ولا وجد الكون كله إلا ليكن مرأة خلقت ليستطيع الإله الصغير أن يرى نفسه فيها فيعجب بها. وهذا يمنعهم من أن يروا كل ما ليس عداهم، وذلك هو السبب في أنهم يرون جميع الأشياء من جانبها الكريه البغيض. A Little Hero