Totally without hope one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness. It is no accident that above the entrance to Dante's hell is the inscription: "Leave behind all hope, you who enter here." Fyodor Dostoevsky More Quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky More Quotes From Fyodor Dostoevsky Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. Fyodor Dostoevsky inspirational mean people There is immeasurably more left inside than what comes out in words. Your thought, even a bad one, while it is with you, is always more profound, but in words it is more ridiculous and dishonorable. Fyodor Dostoevsky ridiculous left profound Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him. Fyodor Dostoevsky appease conscience men Believe to the end, even if all men went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness. Fyodor Dostoevsky loneliness men believe If you happen to have a wart on your nose or forehead, you cannot help imagining that no one in the world has anything else to do but stare at your wart, laugh at it, and condemn you for it, even though you have discovered America. Fyodor Dostoevsky noses laughing america Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old. Fyodor Dostoevsky christian heart jesus To cook your hare you must first catch it. Fyodor Dostoevsky hares cooking firsts If there were no God, he would have to be invented. Fyodor Dostoevsky brothers-karamazov deep-thought ifs All of a sudden I became aware of a little star in one of those patches and I began looking at it intently. That was because the little star gave me an idea: I made up my mind to kill myself that night. I had made up my mind to kill myself already two months before and, poor as I am, I bought myself an excellent revolver and loaded it the same day. But two months had elapsed and it was still lying in the drawer. I was so utterly indifferent to everything that I was anxious to wait for the moment when I would not be so indifferent and then kill myself. Why -- I don't know. Fyodor Dostoevsky stars night lying We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another. Fyodor Dostoevsky motive never-forget complicated Nature doesn't ask your permission; it doesn't care about your wishes, or whether you like its laws or not. You're obliged to accept it as it is, and consequently all its results as well. Fyodor Dostoevsky care law wish You know, my boy, he said, it's impossible to love men such as they are. And yet we must. So try to do good to men by doing violence to your feelings, holding your nose, and shutting your eyes, especially shutting your eyes. Endure their villainy without anger, as much as possible; try to remember that you're a man too. For, if you're even a little above average intelligence, you'll have the propensity to judge people severely. Men are vile by nature and they'd rather love out of fear. Don't give in to such love: despise it always. Fyodor Dostoevsky eye love boys They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other. Fyodor Dostoevsky sick eye heart Was it all put into words, or did both understand that they had the same thing at heart and in their minds, so that there was no need to speak of it aloud, and better not to speak of it? Fyodor Dostoevsky understanding mind heart Man, do not pride yourself on your superiority to the animals, for they are without sin, while you, with all your greatness, you defile the earth wherever you appear and leave an ignoble trail behind you -- and that is true, alas, for almost every one of us! Fyodor Dostoevsky greatness pride men We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Fyodor Dostoevsky conception imagine eternity Right or wrong, it's very pleasant to break something from time to time. Fyodor Dostoevsky chaos deep-thought break Beggars, especially noble beggars, should never show themselves in the street; they should ask for alms through the newspapers. It's still possible to love one's neighbor abstractly, and even occasionally from a distance, but hardly ever up close. Fyodor Dostoevsky neighbor distance noble The greater the stupidity, the greater the clarity. Stupidity is brief and guileless, while wit equivocates and hides. Wit is a scoundrel, while stupidity is honest and sincere. Fyodor Dostoevsky clarity honest stupidity The essence of religious feeling does not come under any sort of reasoning or atheism, and has nothing to do with any crimes or misdemeanors. There is something else here, and there will always be something else - something that the atheists will for ever slur over; they will always be talking of something else. Fyodor Dostoevsky atheist religious talking
