Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer, who is known for Notes from Underground (1864), Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868-69), The Possessed (1872), and The Brothers of Karamazov (1879-80). The quotes from Fyodor Dostoevsky are famous in world literature. Here are a few memorable quotes from the Russian literary master, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

• "But you're a poet, and I'm a simple mortal, and therefore I will say one must look at things from the simplest, most practical point of view. I, for one, have long since freed myself from all shackles, and even obligations. I only recognize obligations when I see I have something to gain by them. You. of course, can't look at things like that, your legs are in fetters and your taste is morbid. You yearn for the ideal, for virtue. But, my dear friend, I am ready to recognize anything you tell me to, but what shall I do if I know for a fact that at the root of all human virtues lies the most intense egoism?"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Insulted and Humiliated
  
  
• "Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of makingmen happy in the end... but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature... And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell me the truth!"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
  
  
• "For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground
  
  
• "Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind."
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground
  
  
• "But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that along with happiness, in the exact same way and in perfectly equal proportion, man also needs unhappiness!"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed
  
  
• "Every one is astounded at the cause of this unexpected explosion on the part of a man thought incapable of such a thing. It is the convulsive manifestation of his personality, an instinctive melancholia, an uncontrollable desire for self-assertion, all of which obscures his reason. It is a sort of epileptic attack, a spasm. A man buried alive who suddenly wakes up must strike in a similar manner against the lid of his coffin. He tries to rise up, to push it from him, although his reason must convince him of the uselessness of his efforts. Reason, however, has nothing to do with this convulsion. It must not be forgotten that almost every voluntary manifestation on the part of the convict is looked upon as a crime. Accordingly, it is a perfect matter of indifference to them whether this manifestation be important or insignificant, debauch for debauch, danger for danger. It is just as well to go to the end, even as far as murder. The only difficulty is the first step."
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The House of the Dead
  
  
• "For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments. And all the time your soul is craving and longing for something else. And in vain does the dreamer rummage about in his old dreams, raking them over as though they were a heap of cinders, looking in these cinders for some spark, however tiny, to fan it into a flame so as to warm his chilled blood by it and revive in it all that he held so dear before, all that touched his heart, that made his blood course through his veins, that drew tears from his eyes, and that so splendidly deceived him!"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights