Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
49 quotes
"You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won't be wiser?"
"You can't skip over nature by logic. Logic presupposes three possibilities, but there are millions! Cut away a million, and reduce it all to the question of comfort! That's the easiest solution to the problem!"
"The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!"
"It is man's unique privilege, among all other organisms. By pursuing falsehood you will arrive at the truth!"
"(…)man holds the remedy in his own hands, and lets everything go its own way, simply through cowardice- that is an axiom."
"Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once. Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!"
"…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!"
"A drunken but exceedingly depressed German clown from Munich entertained the public."
"He was, however, unable to give much prolonged or continuous thought to anything that evening , or to concentrate on any one idea; and anyway, even if he had been able to, he would not have found his way to a solution of these questions in a conscious manner; now he could only feel. In place of dialectics life had arrived, and in his consciousness something of a wholly different nature must now work towards fruition."
"Well, you may abuse me, be angry with me if you like," Porfiry Petrovitch began again, "but I can't resist. Allow me one little question (I know I am troubling you). There is just one little notion I want to express, simply that I may not forget it."
"It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently."
"Eh, brother, but nature has to be corrected and guided, otherwise we'd all drown in prejudices. Without that there wouldn't be even a single great man."
"Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare."
"Power is only vouchsafed to the man who dares to stoop and pick it up."
"Man is a vile creature!"
"Strength, strength is what I need; nothing can be done without strength; and strength must be gained by strength."
"Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen."
"A percentage! What splendid words they have; they are so scientific, so consolatory.... Once you've said 'percentage' there's nothing more to worry about. If we had any other word... maybe we might feel more uneasy...."
"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… ."
"Everything which is of use to mankind is honourable."
"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart."
"Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart."
"Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself."
"Perhaps," you will add, grinning, "those who have never been slapped will also not understand" - thereby politely hinting that I, too, may have experienced a slap in my life, and am therefore speaking as a connoisseur."
"Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a broad consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great men I think, must feel great sorrow in this world."