What can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? They have succeeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Categorized in : Joy Desire Humanity

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

escaping prison way

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying - lying to others and to yourself.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

wisdom truth lying

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

criminal-mind alive lying

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

sad pain inspirational

When I look back on my past and think how much time I wasted on nothing, how much time has been lost in futilities, errors, laziness, incapacity to live; how little I appreciated it, how many times I sinned against my heart and soul-then my heart bleeds. Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

moving-on heart past

The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!

Fyodor Dostoevsky

good-night stars god

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

punishment honesty truth

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

spiritual animal love

I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

gave-up problem caring

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

paradise fool unhappy

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.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

confidence respect self-esteem

Learning to love is hard and we pay dearly for it. It takes hard work and a long apprenticeship, for it is not just for a moment that we must learn to love, but forever.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

hard-work love-is long

And so I ask myself: 'Where are your dreams?' And I shake my head and mutter: 'How the years go by!' And I ask myself again: 'What have you done with those years? Where have you buried your best moments? Have you really lived? Look,' I say to myself, 'how cold it is becoming all over the world!' And more years will pass and behind them will creep grim isolation. Tottering senility will come hobbling, leaning on a crutch, and behind these will come unrelieved boredom and despair. The world of fancies will fade, dreams will wilt and die and fall like autumn leaves from the trees. . . .

Fyodor Dostoevsky

autumn dream fall

Humanity can live without science, it can live without bread, but it cannot live without beauty. Without beauty, there would be nothing left to do in this life. Here the secret lies. Here lies the entire story.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

humanity secret lying

People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

animal men people

If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man ... just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

laughter laughing men

The more incompetent one feels, the more eager he is to fight.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

conflict fighting feels

If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment, all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

crush work meaningful

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

suffering love life

Whoever has experienced the power and the unrestrained ability to humiliate another human being automatically loses his own sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it has its own organic life, it develops finally into a disease. The habit can kill and coarsen the very best man or woman to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate ... the return of the human dignity, repentance and regeneration becomes almost impossible.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

levels men blood