What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
— The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian philosopher, novelist, short-story writer, essayist and journalist, regarded as one of the greatest novelists in Russian and world literature. His work explores the human condition in the troubled political, social and spiritual climate of 19th-century Russia.
His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov, and his novella Notes from Underground is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature. Born in Moscow in 1821, he studied at the Nikolayevsky Engineering Academy and worked as an engineer before his first novel, Poor Folk, gained him entry into the literary circles of Saint Petersburg. He was arrested in 1849. The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are his most quoted works in our library.
His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov, and his novella Notes from Underground is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature. Born in Moscow in 1821, he studied at the Nikolayevsky Engineering Academy and worked as an engineer before his first novel, Poor Folk, gained him entry into the literary circles of Saint Petersburg. He was arrested in 1849. The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are his most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
- The Brothers Karamazov 98
- Crime and Punishment 58
- Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead 46
- The Idiot 22
- The Dream of a Ridiculous Man 11
- White Nights 11
I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.
— The Brothers Karamazov
But how could you live and have no story to tell?
— White Nights
You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won't be wiser?
— Crime and Punishment
The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.
— Crime and Punishment
Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, 'I am doing God's will on earth.
— The Brothers Karamazov
You can't skip over nature by logic. Logic presupposes three possibilities, but there are millions! Cut away a million, and reduce it all to the question of comfort! That's the easiest solution to the problem!
— Crime and Punishment
If someone proved to me that Christ is outside the truth and that in reality the truth were outside of Christ, then I should prefer to remain with Christ rather than with the truth.
— Complete Letters, 1868-1871
The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!
— Crime and Punishment
We degrade God too much, ascribing to him our ideas, in vexation at being unable to understand Him.
— The Idiot
Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind.
— Crime and Punishment
He was one of the numerous and varied legion of dullards, of half-animated abortions, conceited, half-educated coxcombs, who attach themselves to the idea most in fashion only to vulgarize it and who caricature every cause they serve, however sincerely.
— Crime and Punishment
My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?
— White Nights
Instead of giving a firm foundation for setting the conscience of man at rest forever, Thou didst choose all that is exceptional, vague and enigmatic.
— The Brothers Karamazov
Stupidity is brief and guileless, while wit equivocates and hides. Wit is a scoundrel, while stupidity is honest and sincere.
— The Brothers Karamazov
how anxiously I yearned for those I had forsaken.
— The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
…everyone needs a somewhere, a place he can go. There comes a time, you see, inevitably there comes a time you have to have a somewhere you can go!
— Crime and Punishment
. . . finally, I couldn't imagine how I could live without books, and I stopped dreaming about marrying that Chinese prince. . . .
— White Nights
Sorrow compressed my heart, and I felt I would die, and then . . . Well, then I woke up.
— The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Why is it that when you awake to the world of realities you nearly always feel, sometimes very vividly, that the vanished dream has carried with it some enigma which you have failed to solve?
— The Idiot
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.
— The Grand Inquisitor
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
— Crime and Punishment
The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.
— The Idiot
Nature does not ask your permission, she has nothing to do with your wishes, and whether you like her laws or dislike them, you are bound to accept her as she is, and consequently all her conclusions.
— Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead