Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Kurnaz insanlar böylesi basit şeylerden tuzağa düşerler. İnsan ne kadar kurnazsa, basit şeylerden tuzağa düşürüleceğinden o kadar az kuşku duyar.”

“...there is no explaining anything by reasoning and so it is useless to reason.”

“The poor girl ws keeping that student's letter as a precious treasure, and had run to fetch it, her only treasure, because she did not want me to go away without knowing that she, too, was honestly and genuinely loved; that she, too, was addressed respectfully. No doubt that letter was destined to lie in her box and lead to nothing. But none the less, I am certain that she would keep it all her life as a precious treasure, as her pride and justification, and now at such a minute she had thought of that letter and brought it with naive pride to raise herself in my eyes that I might see, that I, too, might think well of her.”

“I want peace; yes, I'd sell the whole world for a farthing, straight off, so long as I was left in peace. Is the world to go to pot, or am I to go without my tea? I say that the world may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea. Did you know that, or not? Well, anyway, I know that I am a blackguard, a scoundrel, an egoist, a sluggard.”

“Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave. That is his normal condition. Of that I am firmly persuaded. He is made and constructed to that very end. And not only at the present time owing to some casual circumstance, but always, at all times, a decent man is bound to be a coward and a slave.”

“A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.”

“You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there's no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots. Here I, for instance, quite naturally want to live, in order to satisfy all my capacities for life, and not simply my capacity for reasoning, that is, not simply one twentieth of my capacity for life. What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning (some things, perhaps, it will never learn; this is a poor comfort, but why not say so frankly?) and human nature acts as a whole, with everything that is in it, consciously or unconsciously, and, even if it goes wrong, it lives.”

“The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for variety of sensations - and absolutely nothing more.”

“I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness - a real thorough-going illness.”

“I’ve alway been struck by how little adults understand children, even their own fathers and mothers. Nothing should be kept from children on the pretext that they’re little and it’s too soon for them to know. Such a sad, wretched idea! Children themselves are well aware that their parents regard them as as too small and uncomprehending, when actually they understand everything. Adults don’t realize that children can give extremely valuable advice in the most difficult situations. Heavens! When that pretty little bird looks at you, so happy and trusting, you are ashamed to betray it!”

“You say I haven’t any orginality. But mark this, dear Prince, there’s nothing more annoying for a man of our time and race than to tell him he’s not original, a weak character with no special talents, ordinary in other words. You didn’t even deign to regard me as a genuine rogue, I felt like killing you for that just now, you know that?”

“Compassion was the most important, perhaps the sole law of human existence.”

“The side whiskers indeed were quite handsome. But he stroked them so very zealously that looking at him, one might very well think that first just the side whiskers had been brought into the world, and then later the gentleman was attached to them in order to stroke them.”

“I wanted to fathom her secrets; I wanted her to come to me and say: "I love you," and if not that, if that was senseless insanity, then...well, what was there to care about? Did I know what I wanted? I was like one demented: all I wanted was to be near her, in the halo of her glory, in her radiance, always, for ever, all my life. I knew nothing more!”

“Vorrei penetrare il suo segreto, vorrei che lei venisse da me e mi dicesse: "Io ti amo", e se non è così, se questa follia non è pensabile, allora... allora che cosa desiderare? Forse so io stesso quel che desidero? Sono anch'io come sperduto: vorrei soltanto starle accanto, essere nella sua aura, nella sua luce, eternamente, per tutta la vita. Altro non so! Potrei forse allontanarmi da lei?”

“There is nothing so annoying as to be fairly rich, of a fairly good family,pleasing presence, average education, to be "not stupid," kindhearted,and yet to have no talent at all, no originality, not a single ideaof one's own—to be, in fact, "just like everyone else."Of such people there are countless numbers in this world—far moreeven than appear. They can be divided into two classes as all mencan—that is, those of limited intellect, and those who are much cleverer.The former of these classes is the happier.To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing issimpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in thatbelief without the slightest misgiving.Many of our young women have thought fit to cut their hair short, puton blue spectacles, and call themselves Nihilists. By doing this they havebeen able to persuade themselves, without further trouble, that theyhave acquired new convictions of their own. Some men have but feltsome little qualm of kindness towards their fellow-men, and the fact hasbeen quite enough to persuade them that they stand alone in the van ofenlightenment and that no one has such humanitarian feelings as they.Others have but to read an idea of somebody else's, and they can immediatelyassimilate it and believe that it was a child of their own brain.The "impudence of ignorance," if I may use the expression, is developedto a wonderful extent in such cases;—unlikely as it appears, it is metwith at every turn.... those belonged to the other class—to the "much cleverer"persons, though from head to foot permeated and saturated withthe longing to be original. This class, as I have said above, is far lesshappy. For the "clever commonplace" person, though he may possiblyimagine himself a man of genius and originality, none the less has withinhis heart the deathless worm of suspicion and doubt; and this doubtsometimes brings a clever man to despair. (As a rule, however, nothingtragic happens;—his liver becomes a little damaged in the course of time,nothing more serious. Such men do not give up their aspirations afteroriginality without a severe struggle,—and there have been men who,though good fellows in themselves, and even benefactors to humanity,have sunk to the level of base criminals for the sake of originality)”

“Leiden und Schmerz sind für eine umfassende Erkenntnis und für ein tiefes Herz seit jeher unerläßlich.”

“İnsan,gelip geçici heveseleri olan,tutarsız bir varlıktır ve tıpkı satranç oyuncuları gibi hedefe ulaşmayı değilde hedefe giden yolları daha çok sever. Emin olamayız elbette,ama insanın ulaşmak için çabaladığı şey, hedefe giden bu yol olabilir;o da hayatın ta kendisidir zaten. Aslına bakılırsa hedef,iki kere iki dörttür yani bir formüldür; ama bu formül hayatın değil,ölümün başlangıcıdır. İnsan,daima iki kere ikinin dört etmesinden az da olsa bir korku duymuştur;tıpkı benim duyduğum gibi. İnsanın uğruna denizler aştığı,hayatını tükettiği hedefi iki kere iki dörttür; ama öte yandan insanın korkusu bu hedefe ulaşmaktır. Çünkü ulaştığı an hedefsiz kalacağının bilincindedir... İnsan,hedefe ilerlemeyi sever ulaşmayı değil; şüphesiz çok gülünç bir durumdur bu. İşin en hoş tarafı insanın daha doğduğunda gülünç olmasındadır. İki kere iki dört formülü, yine de dayanılmaz şey doğrusu. Bana kalırsa iki kere iki dört, büyük bir küstahlıktır ve etrafa tükürükler saçan,elleri belinde,yol kesen bir külhan beyinin ta kendisidir. İki kere ikinin mükemmelliğine inanıyorum; fakat ondan daha üstün olduğuna inandığım şey, iki kere ikinin beş etmesidir.'Yeraltından Notlar - Dostoyevski”

“Do you know, to my thinking it's a good thing sometimes to be absurd; it's better in fact, it makes it easier to forgive one another, it's easier to be humble. One can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan't understand them thoroughly.”

“Clouds overlaid the sky as with a shroud of mist, and everything looked sad, rainy, and threatening under a fine drizzle which was beating against the window-panes, and streaking their dull, dark surfaces with runlets of cold, dirty moisture. Only a scanty modicum of daylight entered to war with the trembling rays of the ikon lamp. The dying man threw me a wistful look, and nodded. The next moment he had passed away.”

“Yet as the evening of Sunday came on, a sadness as of death would overtake me, for at nine o'clock I had to return to school, where everything was cold and strange and severe—where the governesses, on Mondays, lost their tempers, and nipped my ears, and made me cry.”

“Before you there lie the Steppes, my darling—only the Steppes, the naked Steppes, the Steppes that are as bare as the palm of my hand. There there live only heartless old women and rude peasants and drunkards. There the trees have already shed their leaves. There abide but rain and cold.”

“Perhaps one may be out late, and had got separated from one's companions. Oh horrors! Suddenly one starts and trembles as one seems to see a strange-looking being peering from out of the darkness of a hollow tree, while all the while the wind is moaning and rattling and howling through the forest—moaning with a hungry sound as it strips the leaves from the bare boughs, and whirls them into the air. High over the tree-tops, in a widespread, trailing, noisy crew, there fly, with resounding cries, flocks of birds which seem to darken and overlay the very heavens. Then a strange feeling comes over one, until one seems to hear the voice of some one whispering: "Run, run, little child! Do not be out late, for this place will soon have become dreadful! Run, little child! Run!" And at the words terror will possess one's soul, and one will rush and rush until one's breath is spent—until, panting, one has reached home.”

“We are citizens of eternity.”

“It's life that matters, nothing but life—the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.”

“He was particulary drawn to these two clerks by the fact that they both had crooked noses, one bent to the left and the other to the right. They took him finally to a pleasure garden, where he paid for their entrance. There was one lanky three-year-old pine tree and three bushes in the garden, besides a vauxhal, which was in reality a drinking-bar where tea too was served...”

“Here is a commandment for you: seek happiness in sorrow. Work, work tirelessly.”

“Very well, I agree that two and two make four is an excellent thing; but...two and two make five is also a very fine thing too.”

“If they knew that they are happy, they would be happy.”

“You’re a gentleman,” they used to say to him. “You shouldn’t have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that’s no occupation for a gentleman.”

“İçinde bulunduğunuz kötü duruma karşın başka türlü olamayacağını bundan sonra değişemeyeceğinizi dahası bunun için zamanınız ve inancınız olsa bile değişmeyi istemeyeceğinizi anlamanızın doyumsuz tadıdır bu.”

“I am sure that deep down Ikhmenev was in a state of turmoil and pain as he witnessed the tears and torment of his poor wife; I am sure it was more agonizing for him than for her - but he could not control himself. This is what happens sometimes even with the most kind-hearted of people, who are nevertheless weak-willed, and who, despite their kind-heartedness, are apt to get carried off into a state of ecstasy when unburdening themselves of their grief and anger, even at the expense of hurting someone innocent, more often than not someone who is dear to them.”

“Dreams appear much more prominent and clear when the dreamer is in an unhealthy state - they have an extraordinary semblance of reality. Most monstrous pictures are put together but all the circumstances are so subtly interwoven the details so artistically harmonious in every minute respect as to defy human imitation. Such morbid dreams are always recollected for very long and produce strong impressions on the disordered and already excited organs of the dreamer.”

“Coming at twenty to his father's house, which was a very sink of filthy debauchery, he, chaste and pure as he was, simply withdrew in silence when to look on was unbearable, but without the slightest sign of contempt or condemnation. His father, who had once been in a dependent position, and so was sensitive and ready to take offense, met him at first with distrust and sullenness.”

“One circumstance tormented me then: Namely, that no one else was like me, and I was like no one else. I am only one, and they are all.”

“We must name the eminent and fascinating Prince N. - once the vanquisher of female hearts all over Europe.”

“It's curious and ridiculous how much the gaze of a prudish and painfully chaste man touched by love can sometimes express and that precisely at a moment when the man would of course sooner be glad to fall through the earth than to express anything with a word or a look.”

“Once he went into the mountains on a clear, sunny day, and wandered about for a long time with a tormenting thought that refused to take shape. Before him was the shining sky, below him the lake, around him the horizon, bright and infinite, as if it went on forever. For a long time he looked and suffered. He remembered now how he had stretched out his arms to that bright, infinite blue and wept. What had tormented him was that he was a total stranger to it all. What was this banquet, what was this great everlasting feast, to which he had long been drawn, always, ever since childhood, and which he could never join? Every morning the same bright sun rises; every morning there is a rainbow over the waterfall; every evening the highest snowcapped mountain, there, far away, at the edge of the sky, burns with a crimson flame; every little fly that buzzes near him in a hot ray of sunlight participates in this whole chorus: knows its place, loves it, and is happy; every little blade of grass grows and is happy! And everything has its path, and everything knows its path, goes with a song and comes back with a song; only he knows nothing, understands nothing, neither people nor sounds, a stranger to everything and a castaway.”

“His position at that moment was like the position of a man standing over a frightful precipice, when the earth breaks away under him, is rocking, shifting, sways for a last time, and falls, drawing him into the abyss, and meanwhile the unfortunate man has neither the strength nor the firmness of spirit to jump back, to take his eyes from the yawning chasm; the abyss draws him, and he finally leaps into it himself, himself hastening the moment of his own perdition.”

“Though the sleepy, myopic, and rather bald-pated figure reflected in the mirror was precisely of such insignificant quality as to arrest decidedly no one's exclusive attention at first sight, its owner evidently remained perfectly pleased with all he saw in the mirror.”

“One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important matters. How can one deceive these dear little birds, when they look at one so sweetly and confidingly? I call them birds because there is nothing in the world better than birds!”

“His malice was aimed at himself; with shame and contempt he recollected his "cowardice.”

“Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself.”

“What's most revolting is that one is really sad! No, it's better at home. Here at least one blames others for everything and excuses oneself.”

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.”

“People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.”

“I will put up with any mockery rather than pretend that I am satisfied when I am hungry.”

“what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are all divorced from life, we are all cripples, every one of us, more or less. We are so divorced from it that we feel at once a sort of loathing for real life, and so cannot bear to be reminded of it. Why, we have come almost to looking upon real life as an effort, almost as hard work, and we are all privately agreed that it is better in books. And why do we fuss and fume sometimes? Why are we perverse and ask for something else? We don't know what ourselves. It would be the worse for us if our petulant prayers were answered. Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our activity, relax the control and we ... yes I assure you... should be begging to be under control again at once.”

“Can I possibly not understand myself that I'm a lost man? But--why can't I resurrect? Yes! it only takes being calculating and patient at least once in your life and--that's all! It only takes being steadfast at least once, and in an hour I can change my whole destiny!”

“Know that I've forgotten precisely nothing; but I've driven it all out of my head for a time, even the memories--until I've radically improved my circumstances. Then... then you'll see, I'll rise from the dead!”