fyodor dostoevsky

“ The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man. ”

“ I am sorry I can say nothing more to console you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science. ”

“ People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it. ”

“ The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular. ”

“ In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much naiver and more simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too. ”

“ Each of us is guilty in everything before everyone, and I most of all. ”

“ I say a man falls asleep and does not wake up, and that's all...That is my philosophy. ”

“ Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child's prayer to 'dear, kind God'! I say nothing of the sufferings of grown-up people, they have eaten the apple, damn them, and the devil take them all! But these little ones! ”

“ That is a fact and it speaks, it shouts, for itself but when it comes to inner feelings, thats quite a different matter, gentlemen. ”

“ The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone. ”