Dostoyevsky Quotes

“I've been wondering about Dostoyevsky. How can a man write so badly, so unbelievably badly, and make you feel so deeply?”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

“Feeling my own humiliation in my heart like the sharp prick of a needle.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

“Dostoyevsky knew a lot but not everything. He, for instance, thought that if you kill a human you'll turn into Raskolnikov. But we know now that one can kill five - ten, one hundred people - and go to the theatre in the evening.”
― Anna Akhmatova

“All is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most… .”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“But here I should imagine the most terrible part of the whole punishment is, not the bodily pain at all—but the certain knowledge that in an hour, then in ten minutes, then in half a minute, then now—this very instant—your soul must quit your body and that you will no longer be a man—and that this is certain, certain!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“She'll come, if not today, then tomorrow, but she'll find me. That's the cursed romanticism of all these pure hearts! Oh the vileness, oh the stupidity, oh the narrowness, of these rotten, sentimental souls”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“I swear to you that I am not quite such an ass as I like to appear sometimes, although I am rather an ass, I admit.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“One of the characters in our story, Gavril Ardalionovitch Ivolgin, belonged to the other category; he belonged to the category of "much cleverer" people; though head to toe he was infected with the desire to be original. But this class of person, as we have observed above, is far less happy than the first. The difficulty is that the intelligent "ordinary" man, even if he does imagine himself at times (and perhaps all his life) a person of genius and originality, nevertheless retains within his heart a little worm of doubt, which sometimes leads the intelligent man in the end to absolute despair. If he does yield in this belief, he is still completely poisoned with inward-driven vanity.”
― Dostoyevsky

“It was more difficult not to
understand than to understand.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Nasty Anecdote

“A vida só me é dada uma vez, e ela nunca mais voltará—eu não quero esperar a 'felicidade geral'. Eu mesmo quero viver; do contrário o melhor seria não existir.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Aşk, sevilen kişinin seven kişiye kendisi üzerinde zorbalık yapma hakkını armağan etmesidir.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Страдание и боль всегда обязательны для широкого сознания и глубокого сердца. Истинно великие люди, мне кажется, должны ощущать на свете великую грусть.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Преступление и наказание

“Si se acabase el mundo y alguien preguntase a los hombres: «Veamos, ¿qué habéis sacado en limpio de vuestra vida y qué conclusión definitiva habéis deducido de ella?», podrían los hombres mostrar en silencio el Quijote y decir luego: «Ésta es mi conclusión sobre la vida y... ¿podríais condenarme por ella?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, A Writer's Diary 1873-1881

“I would give away all this superstellar life, all the ranks and honours, simply to be transformed into the soul of a merchant’s wife weighing eighteen stone and set candles at God’s shrine”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“İki kere iki dört çekilmez bir şey. İki kere iki dört, bana sorarsanız, bir küstahlıktır. İki kere iki dört, ellerini böğrüne dayayarak yolumuzu kesen, sağa sola tükürük atan bir külhanbeyinin ta kendisidir. İki kere iki dördün yetkinliğine inanırım ama en çok övülmeye değer bir şey varsa, o da iki kere ikinin beş etmesidir.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“And why are you so firmly, so triumphantly, convinced that only the normal and the positive--in other words, only what is conducive to welfare--is for the advantage of man? Is not reason in error as regards advantage? Does not man, perhaps, love something besides well-being? Perhaps he is just as fond of suffering? Perhaps suffering is just as great a benefit to him as well-being? Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering, and that is a fact. There is no need to appeal to universal history to prove that; only ask yourself, if you are a man and have lived at all. As far as my personal opinion is concerned, to care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things. I hold no brief for suffering nor for well-being either. I am standing for ... my caprice, and for its being guaranteed to me when necessary. Suffering would be out of place in vaudevilles, for instance; I know that. In the "Palace of Crystal" it is unthinkable; suffering means doubt, negation, and what would be the good of a "palace of crystal" if there could be any doubt about it? And yet I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness. Though I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the greatest misfortune for man, yet I know man prizes it and would not give it up for any satisfaction. Consciousness, for instance, is infinitely superior to twice two makes four. Once you have mathematical certainty there is nothing left to do or to understand. There will be nothing left but to bottle up your five senses and plunge into contemplation. While if you stick to consciousness, even though the same result is attained, you can at least flog yourself at times, and that will, at any rate, liven you up. Reactionary as it is, corporal punishment is better than nothing.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Si se falla la primera vez, hacer de tripas corazón y si se tiene éxito, perseverar”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky , The Double

“… ze všeho nejvíc ji v tu chvíli skličovala nezbytná myšlenka: “Co kdybych ale nemusela umřít! Co kdybych mohla žít, ta nekonečnost! A tohle všechno by bylo moje! Každou minutu bych proměnila ve věčnost, nic bych nepropásla, každý okamžik bych na vážkách odvažovala, ani chviličku bych nepromarnila!” Říkal, že nakonec ji z té myšlenky popadla taková zlost, že už si přála, aby ji někdo zastřelil co nejdřív.”
― najobľúbenejší od Dostojevského

“Küçük düşürülmesinde bile haz aramaya kalkışan bir adamın kendisine ufacık bir saygısı kalabilir mi? Hadi, siz söyleyin!Bunu umut kırıcı bir pişmanlık sonunda söylemiyorum. Öteden beri "Beni bağışla babacığım, bir daha yapmam!" demekten nefret etmişimdir..Böyle söylemeyi beceremediğim için değil; tam tersine, kolaylıkla, hem de çok rahat söyleyebildiğim için nefret etmişimdir bu sözden.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“Benim asıl kızdığım şey, sinirli anlarımda bile içimde bir öfke ya da hıncın bulunmaması, bütün cartcurtları yalnız gönlümü hoş tutmak için yapmamdı. Öfkeden ağzım köpürmüşken biri biraz gönlümü alsa ya da önüme bir bardak çay sürse hemen yelkenleri suya indirirdim. Bununla da kalmaz, ona karşı bir yakınlık duyardım; ama sonra kendime kızar utancımdan birkaç ay uykularımdan olurdum. Yaratılışım böyleydi işte.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“Quanto più forte era in me la coscienza del bene e di tutto ciò ch'è "bello e sublime", con tanto più entusiasmo mi lasciavo sprofondare nel mio fango fino a impantanarmici completamente.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Und ich weiß jetzt, Sofia, daß, wer kräftig und stark ist an Geist und Verstand, daß der auch der Beherrscher der andern ist! Wer viel wagt, der ist nach ihrer Anschauung auch im Recht. Wer der Masse dreist entgegentritt, der gilt ihnen als Gesetzgeber, und wer mehr als alle andern wagt, der hat auch das allergrößte Recht! So ist das bisher gewesen, und so wird das immer sein! Man muß blind sein, um das nicht einzusehen!”
― Dostojewski, Fjodor

“A Dostoeivski le interesaba la psicología; sacó a la luz la parte criminal que hay en el hombre. A Brecht le interesa la política; saca a la luz la parte criminal que hay en el negocio.”
― Walter Benjamin, La tarea del crítico

“To me without Dostoievsky's work there would be a deep, black hole in world literature. The loss of Shakespeare, who must seem like a wild man to the Chinese, would not be as great as losing Dostoievsky.”
― Henry Miller, Sextet: Six essays

“Her insanın hatıraları arasında herkese anlatmadığı, yalnızca dostlarına açtığı şeyler vardır. Ama dostlarına bile açamadığı, yalnızca kendine açtığı şeyler de vardır. Nihayet bazı şeyler vardır ki, kendine açmaya bile korkar onları.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Tutalım ki, insanın yaptığı tek şey bu iki kere iki dördü aramaktır. Yüzerek okyanusları geçiyor, bu yolda ölümü göze alıyor, ama onu gerçekten bulmaktan da inanın, çok korkuyordur. Onu bulunca arayacağı başka bir şeyin kalmayacağını hissetmektedir çünkü.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Öyle ya, belki yalnızca mutluluğu sevmiyordur insan? Belki aynı ölçüde acıyı da seviyordur? Belki acı da mutluluk kadar çıkarınadır?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Gerçek, tam bir hastalıktır. Sıradan bir bilinç, insanın yaşaması için fazlasıyla yeterlidir.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“Głupiec z sercem i bez rozumu jest tak samo nieszczęśliwy, jak głupiec z rozumem i bez serca.”
― Fiodor Dostojewski

“Jest rzeczą powszechnie wiadomą, że prawdę mówią tylko ci, co nie są dowcipni.”
― Fiodor Dostoyevski, The Idiot