Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Everything passes, only truth remains.”

“Sometimes even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be crazy, a man must set an example, and so draw men's souls out of their solitude and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea may not die.”

“What is the use of Christ's words, unless we set an example?”

“Indeed, precious memories may remain even of a bad home, if only the heart knows how to find what is precious.”

“One day is enough for a man to know all happiness. My dear ones, why do we quarrel, try to outshine each other and keep grudges against each other? Let's go straight into the garden, walk and play there, love, appreciate each other and glorify life.”

“Every one is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything.”

“Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we refuse to see it.”

“But instead of delight his soul was filled with such gloom, and his heart ached with such anguish, as he had never known in his life before... "I am base" he whispered to himself.”

“And even if one tried, it would be very hard to give a true account, for there were no thoughts in Ivan's mind but something very vague. He felt that he had lost his bearings.”

“It's always worthwhile speaking to a clever man.”

“He noticed that Ivan swayed as he walked and that his right shoulder was lower than his left. He had never noticed it before.”

“There is strength to endure everything.”

“He saw that the Prisoner had listened carefully all the time, looking gently in his face--But evidently he did not want to reply. The old man longed for Him to say something, however bitter and terrible. But he suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on the forehead.”

“Your poem was in praise of Jesus, not in blame of Him--as you meant it to be.”

“... we took from him, ... proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth, though we have not yet been able to complete our work.”

“And how are the other weak ones to blame, because they could not endure what the strong have endured?”

“By showing him so much respect, Thou didst, as it were, cease to feel for him, for Thou didst ask far too much from Him--Thou who has loved him more than Thyself! Respecting him less, Thou wouldst have asked less of him. That would have been more like love, for his burden would have been lighter.”

“But I ask again, are there many like Thee? And could thou believe for one moment that men, too, could face such a temptation? Is the nature of men such, that they can reject miracles and at the great moments of their life, the moments of their deepest, most agonizing spiritual difficulties, cling only to the free verdict of their heart? ... and thou didst hope that man, following Thee, would cling to god and not ask for a miracle.”

“They were given paradise, they wanted freedom, and stole fire from heaven, though they knew that they would become unhappy.”

“Stupidity is honest and straightforward.”

“Yet there have been and still are mathematicians and philosophers who doubt whether the whole universe, or to speak more widely, the whole of being, was only created in Euclid's geometry. They even dare to dream that two parallel lines, which according to Euclid can never meet on earth, may meet somewhere in infinity.”

“The marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage beast as man. So holy it is, so touching, so wise and so great a credit is to man.”

“... to celebrate my first hour of freedom. It's been going on nearly six months, and all at once I've thrown it off. I could never have guessed, even yesterday how easy it would be to put an end to it if I wanted.”

“Love it, regardless of logic as you say. It must be regardless of logic.”

“That makes it worse! Worse and better!”

“You know, when children are silent and proud, and they try to keep back their tears when they are in great trouble and suddenly break down, their tears fall in streams.”

“Father,' he asked, 'are rich people stronger than anyone else on earth?' 'Yes Ilusha,' I said, 'there are no people on earth stronger than the rich.”

“... if i die what will become of them? ... What will become of them? ... Who would feed it and who would feed them all?”

“Never trust a woman's tears, Alyosha. I am never for the woman in such cases. I am always on the side of the men.”

“You can't be angry with me, because I am a hundred times more severely punished than you, if only by the fact that I shall never see you again.”

“I am too young and I've loved you too much.”

“She has known all the time that I cared for her--though I never said a word of my love to her--”

“I feel pity for him, and that is a poor sign of love.”

“--you wouldn't have hurt me like this for nothing. So what have I done? How have I wronged you? Tell me.”

“For even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it still follow the Christian ideal.”

“Hate not those who reject you, who insult you, who abuse and slander you. Hate not the atheists, the teachers of evil, the materialists--and I mean not only the good ones--for there are many good ones among them, especially in our day--hate not even the wicked ones.”

“So that you remember that you kissed my hand, but I didn't kiss yours.”

“Where did the light come from on the first day?”

“To insects--sensual lust.”

“An angel in heaven I've told already; but I want to tell an angel on earth.”

“Being in love doesn't mean loving.”

“Alyosha was certain that no one in the whole world ever would want to hurt him, and what is more, he knew that no one could hurt him. This was for him an axiom, assumed once and for all without question. And he went his way without hesitation, relying on it.”

“It was impossible to tell at first sight whether he loved his meek, obedient wife, Marfa. But he really did lover her, and she knew it.”

“Alyosha brought with him something his father had never known before: a complete absence of contempt for him and a consistent kindness, a perfectly natural, unaffected devotion to the old man who deserved so little.”

“There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant!”

“To whom is he to go if you are not together, mother and father?”

“Lamentations comfort only by lacerating the heart still more. Such grief does not desire consolation. It feeds on the sense of its hopelessness. Lamentations spring only from the constant craving to re-open the wound.”

“... the extraordinary craving for someone faithful and devoted, which unaccountably and suddenly came over him.”

“This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.”

“But the church, like a tender, loving mother holds aloof from active punishment herself, as the sinner is too severely punished already by the civil law, and there must be at least someone to have pity on him. The church holds aloof, above all, because its judgment alone contains the truth...”