Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quotations

There are... things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and painfully as to find someone to worship

Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain

Neither man or nation can exist without a sublime idea.

If it were desired to reduce man to nothing, it would be necessary only to give his work a character of uselessness

If the devil does not exist, and man has therefore created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness

I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too

It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.

I tell Thee that man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find some one quickly to whom he can hand over that gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born

Without a firm idea of himself and the purpose of his life, man cannot live, and would sooner destroy himself than remain on earth, even if he was surrounded by bread.

Without some goal and some efforts to reach it, no man can live.

To strive consciously for an object and to engage in engineering -- that is, incessantly and eternally to make new roads, wherever they may lead.

Science which has become a great power in the lastcentury, has analyzed everything divine handed down tous in the holy books. After this cruel analysis thelearned of this world have nothing left of all thatwas sacred. But they have only analyzed the parts andoverlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness ismarvelous.

If there is no immortality, there is no virtue

Innovators and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning (and very often at the end) of their careers.

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.

If God does not exist, then everything is permitted