Background Image
...
When He Has Lost All Hope, All Object In Life, Man Becomes A Monster In His Misery.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

When He Has Lost

Fyodor Dostoevsky
...
When He Has Lost All Hope, All Object In Life, Man Becomes A Monster In His Misery.

Understanding the Quote: "when he has lost all hope, all object in life, man becomes..."

This quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Monsters, Misery, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Fyodor Dostoevsky interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and monsters. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 19571
Topic
Men
Monsters
Misery
More From Fyodor Dostoevsky
I Am A Fool With A Heart But No Brains, And You Are A Fool With Brains But No Heart; And We’re Both Unhappy, And We Both Suffer.
Heart
Brain
Suffering
I Will Put Up With Any Mockery Rather Than Pretend That I Am Satisfied When I Am Hungry.
Hungry
Mockery
Satisfied
If Thou Love Each Thing Thou Wilt Perceive The Mystery Of God In All.
Mystery
Mystery Of God
Perceive
In The Realist, Faith Is Not Born From Miracles, But Miracles From Faith.
Faith
Miracle
Realist
Two Times Two Will Be Four Even Without My Will. Is That What You Call Man's Free Will?
Men
Two
Four
'ever Seen A Leaf - A Leaf From A Tree?' 'yes.' I Saw One Recently - A Yellow One, A Little Green, Wilted At The Edges. Blown By The Wind. When I Was A Little Boy, I Used To Shut My Eyes In Winter And Imagine A Green Leaf, With Veins On It, And The Sun Shining ...' 'what's This - An Allegory?' "no; Why? Not An Allegory - A Leaf, Just A Leaf. A Leaf Is Good. Everything's Good.'
Eye
Winter
Boys
She Looked Much Younger Than Her Age, Indeed, Which Is Almost Always The Case With Women Who Retain Serenity Of Spirit, Sensitiveness And Pure Sincere Warmth Of Heart To Old Age.
Heart
Serenity
Age
Love All God’s Creation, Both The Whole And Every Grain Of Sand. Love Every Leaf, Every Ray Of Light. Love The Animals, Love The Plants, Love Each Separate Thing. If Thou Love Each Thing Thou Wilt Perceive The Mystery Of God In All; And When Once Thou Perceive This, Thou Wilt Thenceforward Grow Every Day To A Fuller Understanding Of It: Until Thou Come At Last To Love The Whole World With A Love That Will Then Be All-embracing And Universal.
Love
Animal
Light
Pray To God For Gladness. Be Glad As Children, As The Birds Of Heaven. And Let Not The Sin Of Men Confound You In Your Doings. Fear Not That It Will Wear Away Your Work And Hinder Its Being Accomplished. Do Not Say, 'sin Is Mighty, Wickedness Is Mighty, Evil Environment Is Mighty, And We Are Lonely And Helpless, And Evil Environment Is Wearing Us Away And Hindering Our Good Work From Being Done.' Fly From That Dejection, Children!
Lonely
Children
Men
After All, Bluff And Real Emotion Exist So Easily Side By Side.
Real
Sides
Emotion
One Circumstance Tormented Me Then: Namely, That No One Else Was Like Me, And I Was Like No One Else. I Am Only One, And They Are All.
Circumstances
Like Me
People With New Ideas, People With The Faintest Capacity For Saying Something New, Are Extremely Few In Number, Extraordinarily So, In Fact.
Punishment
Ideas
Numbers
But Man Is So Addicted To Systems And To Abstract Conclusions That He Is Prepared Deliberately To Distort The Truth, To Close His Eyes And Ears, But Justify His Logic At All Cost.
Life
Eye
Men
One Man Doesn't Believe In God At All, While The Other Believes In Him So Thoroughly That He Prays As He Murders Men!
Believe
Men
Praying
If He's Honest, He'll Steal; If He's Human, He'll Murder; If He's Faithful, He'll Deceive.
Lying
Faithful
Deceit
Above All, Avoid Falsehood, Every Kind Of Falsehood, Especially Falseness To Yourself. Watch Over Your Own Deceitfulness And Look Into It Every Hour, Every Minute.
Over You
Watches
Looks
In Most Cases, People, Even Wicked People, Are Far More Naive And Simple-hearted Than One Generally Assumes. And So Are We.
Simple
People
Wicked
But What Are Years, What Are Months!" He Would Exclaim. "why Count The Days, When Even One Day Is Enough For Man To Know All Happiness.
Men
Years
One Day
When I Look Back At The Past And Think Of All The Time I Squandered In Error And Idleness,... Then My Heart Bleeds. Life Is A Gift... Every Minute Could Have Been An Eternity Of Happiness! If Only Youth Knew! Now My Life Will Change; Now I Will Be Reborn.
Heart
Past
Thinking
Above All, Don't Lie To Yourself.
Respect
Lying
Occupy Yourself
Faith Does Not, In The Realist, Spring From The Miracle But The Miracle From Faith. If The Realist Once Believes, Then He Is Bound By His Very Realism To Admit The Miraculous Also.
Spring
Believe
Miracle
Even As I Approach The Gambling Hall, As Soon As I Hear, Two Rooms Away, The Jingle Of Money Poured Out On The Table, I Almost Go Into Convulsions.
Gambling
Two
Jingles
It's In Despair That You Find The Sharpest Pleasures, Particularly When You Are Most Acutely Aware Of The Hopelessness Of Your Position.
Despair
Hopelessness
Pleasure
Man Has It All In His Hands, And It All Slips Through His Fingers From Sheer Cowardice.
Men
Hands
Cowardice
We Always Imagine Eternity As Something Beyond Our Conception, Something Vast, Vast! But Why Must It Be Vast?
Imagine
Eternity
Conception
I Cannot Understand Why The World Is Arranged As It Is.
World
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."
Hell
Hopelessness
Entrances
In The Newspapers I Read A Biography About An American. He Left His Whole Huge Fortune To Factories And For The Positive Sciences, His Skeleton To The Students At The Academy There, And His Skin To Make A Drum So As To Have The American National Anthem Drummed On It Day And Night.
Night
Skeletons
Skins
What Does Reason Know? Reason Only Knows What It Has Succeeded In Learning.
Inspirational
Doe
Students
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.
Laughter
Men
Laughing
The World Says: "you Have Needs - Satisfy Them. You Have As Much Right As The Rich And The Mighty. Don't Hesitate To Satisfy Your Needs; Indeed, Expand Your Needs And Demand More." This Is The Worldly Doctrine Of Today. And They Believe That This Is Freedom. The Result For The Rich Is Isolation And Suicide, For The Poor, Envy And Murder.
Suicide
Believe
Envy
The World Has Proclaimed The Reign Of Freedom, Especially Of Late, But What Do We See In This Freedom Of Theirs? Nothing But Slavery And Self-destruction! For The World Says: "you Have Desires And So Satisfy Them, For You Have The Same Rights As The Most Rich And Powerful. Don't Be Afraid Of Satisfying Them And Even Multiply Your Desires."
Powerful
Rights
Self
Put Away Your Gods And Come And Worship Ours, Or We Will Kill You And Your Gods!
Worship
As For Me, This Is My Story: I Worked And Was Tortured. You Know What It Means To Compose? No, Thank God, You Do Not! I Believe You Have Never Written To Order, By The Yard, And Have Never Experienced That Hellish Torture.
Believe
Writing
Mean
My God, A Moment Of Bliss. Why, Isn't That Enough For A Whole Lifetime?
Happiness
Bliss
Moments
I Did Not Bow Down To You, I Bowed Down To All The Suffering Of Humanity.
Punishment
Humanity
Suffering
Never Mind A Little Dirt, If The Goal Is Splendid!
Goal
Mind
Littles
But Man Is A Fickle And Disreputable Creature And Perhaps, Like A Chess-player, Is Interested In The Process Of Attaining His Goal Rather Than The Goal Itself.
Success
Player
Men
The More I Detest Men Individually The More Ardent Becomes My Love For Humanity.
Men
Humanity
Brothers Karamazov
Even There, In The Mines, Underground, I May Find A Human Heart In Another Convict And Murderer By My Side, And I May Make Friends With Him, For Even There One May Live And Love And Suffer. One May Thaw And Revive A Frozen Heart In That Convict, One May Wait Upon Him For Years, And At Last Bring Up From The Dark Depths A Lofty Soul, A Feeling, Suffering Creature; One May Bring Forth An Angel, Create A Hero! There Are So Many Of Them, Hundreds Of Them, And We Are All To Blame For Them. [...] If They Drive God From The Earth, We Shall Shelter Him Underground.
Hero
Heart
Angel
The Golden Age Is The Most Implausible Of All Dreams. But For It Men Have Given Up Their Life And Strength; For The Sake Of It Prophets Have Died And Been Slain; Without It The People Will Not Live And Cannot Die.
Dream
Men
People
And In Fact You're Not Like Everyone Else: You Weren't Ashamed Just Now To Confess Bad And Even Ridiculous Things About Yourself. Who Would Confess Such Things Nowadays? No One, And People Have Even Stopped Feeling Any Need For Self-judgment.
Self
People
Feelings
They Were Renewed By Love; The Heart Of Each Held Infinite Sources Of Life For The Heart Of The Other.
Life
Heart
Infinite
Neither A Person Nor A Nation Can Exist Without Some Higher Idea. And There Is Only One Higher Idea On Earth, And It Is The Idea Of The Immortality Of The Human Soul, For All Other "higher" Ideas Of Life By Which Humans Might Live Derive From That Idea Alone.
Ideas
Soul
Might
Let Us Not Forget That The Reasons For Human Actions Are Usually Incalculably More Complex And Diverse Than We Tend To Explain Them Later, And Are Seldom Clearly Manifest.
Action
Forget
Reason
This Is My Last Message To You: In Sorrow, Seek Happiness.
Sorrow
Lasts
Messages
They Have Succeeded In Accumulating A Greater Mass Of Objects, But The Joy In The World Has Grown Less.
Joy
World
Mass
What Is Hell? I Maintain That It Is The Suffering Of Being Unable To Love.
Love
Life
Suffering
Pass Us By, And Forgive Us Our Happiness
Forgiving
To Study The Meaning Of Man And Of Life — I Am Making Significant Progress Here. I Have Faith In Myself. Man Is A Mystery: If You Spend Your Entire Life Trying To Puzzle It Out, Then Do Not Say That You Have Wasted Your Time. I Occupy Myself With This Mystery, Because I Want To Be A Man.
Men
Progress
Trying
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.
Love
Eye
Boys
My Friend, The Truth Is Always Implausible, Did You Know That? To Make The Truth More Plausible, It's Absolutely Necessary To Mix A Bit Of Falsehood With It. People Have Always Done So.
People
Done
Truth Is
It Seems, In Fact, As Though The Second Half Of A Man's Life Is Made Up Of Nothing, But The Habits He Has Accumulated During The First Half.
Life
Men
Second Chance
I Think Everyone Must Love Life More Than Anything Else In The World.' 'love Life More Than The Meaning Of It?' 'yes, Certainly. Love It Regardless Of Logic, As You Say. Yes, Most Certainly Regardless Of Logic, For Only Then Will I Grasp Its Meaning. That's What I've Been Vaguely Aware Of For A Long Time. Half Your Work Is Done, Ivan: You Love Life. Now You Must Try To Do The Second Half And You Are Saved.
Love Life
Thinking
World Love
To Be Too Conscious Is An Illness. A Real Thorough Going Illness.
Real
Illness
Conscious
I May Be Mistaken But It Seems To Me That A Man May Be Judged By His Laugh, And That If At First Encounter You Like The Laugh Of A Person Completely Unknown To You, You May Say With Assurance That He Is Good.
Men
Laughing
Encounters
It Is Better To Be Unhappy And Know The Worst, Than To Be Happy In A Fool's Paradise.
Unhappy
Paradise
Fool
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.
Stars
Lying
Night
Reality Is Infinitely Diverse, Compared With Even The Subtlest Conclusions Of Abstract Thought, And Does Not Allow Of Clear-cut And Sweeping Distinctions. Reality Resists Classification.
Cutting
Reality
Doe
It's Not Miracles That Generate Faith, But Faith That Generates Miracles.
Miracle
Compassion Is The Chief Law Of Human Existence.
Kindness
Compassion
Law
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.
Reality
Christ
Should
But Do You Understand, I Cry To Him, Do You Understand That If You Have The Guillotine In The Forefront, And With Such Glee, It's For The Sole Reason That Cutting Heads Off Is The Easiest Thing, And Having An Idea Is Difficult!
Cutting
Ideas
Glee
Every Ant Knows The Formula Of Its Ant-hill, Every Bee Knows The Formula Of Its Beehive. They Know It In Their Own Way, Not In Our Way. Only Humankind Does Not Know Its Own Formula.
Bees
Doe
Way
Man Is A Creature That Can Get Accustomed To Anything, And I Think That Is The Best Definition Of Him.
Men
Thinking
Definitions
Gentlemen, I Am Tormented By Questions; Answer Them For Me.
Gentleman
Answers
Beauty Is Mysterious As Well As Terrible. God And Devil Are Fighting There, And The Battlefield Is The Heart Of Man.
Beauty
Heart
Fighting
Talking Nonsense Is Man's Only Privilege That Distinguishes Him From All Other Organisms.
Men
Talking
Privilege
Gentlemen, Let Us Suppose That Man Is Not Stupid. (indeed One Cannot Refuse To Suppose That, If Only From The One Consideration, That, If Man Is Stupid, Then Who Is Wise?) But If He Is Not Stupid, He Is Monstrously Ungrateful! Phenomenally Ungrateful. In Fact, I Believe That The Best Definition Of Man Is The Ungrateful Biped.
Wise
Stupid
Believe
Be Not Forgetful Of Prayer. Every Time You Pray, If Your Prayer Is Sincere, There Will Be New Feeling And New Meaning In It, Which Will Give You Fresh Courage, And You Will Understand That Prayer Is An Education.
Prayer
Giving
Feelings
My Sweetheart! When I Think Of You, It's As If I'm Holding Some Healing Balm To My Sick Soul, And Although I Suffer For You, I Find That Even Suffering For You Is Easy.
Healing
Thinking
Sick
I Gave Up Caring About Anything, And All The Problems Disappeared.
Caring
Problem
Gave Up
Lying Is A Delightful Thing, For It Leads To Truth.
Inspirational
Lying
Delightful
And, Indeed, I Will At This Point Ask An Idle Question On My Own Account: Which Is Better — Cheap Happiness Or Exalted Sufferings? Well, Which Is Better?
Suffering
Wells
Idle
It Is Precisely That Requirement Of Shared Worship That Has Been The Principal Source Of Suffering For Individual Man And The Human Race Since The Beginning Of History. In Their Efforts To Impose Universal Worship, Men Have Unsheathed Their Swords And Killed One Another. They Have Invented Gods And Challenged Each Other: "discard Your Gods And Worship Mine Or I Will Destroy Both Your Gods And You!"
Men
Race
Effort
Filled With Rapture, His Soul Yearned For Freedom, Space, Vastness. Over Him The Heavenly Dome, Full Of Quiet, Shining Stars, Hung Boundlessly. From The Zenith To The Horizon The Still-dim Milky Way Stretched Its Double Strand. Night, Fresh And Quiet, Almost Unstirring, Enveloped The Earth. The White Towers And Golden Domes Of The Church Gleamed In The Sapphire Sky. The Luxuriant Autumn Asleep Till Morning. The Silence Of The Earth Seemed To Merge With The Silence Of The Heavens And The Mystery Of The Earth Touched The Mystery Of The Stars.
Morning
Stars
Autumn
A Society Should Be Judged Not By How It Treats Its Outstanding Citizens But By How It Treats Its Criminals.
Criminals
Citizens
Prison
In A Morbid Condition Of The Brain, Dreams Often Have A Singular Actuality, Vividness, And Extraordinary Semblance Of Reality.
Dream
Reality
Brain
... The More I Learned, The More Conscious Did I Become Of The Fact That I Was Ridiculous. So That For Me My Years Of Hard Work At The University Seem In The End To Have Existed For The Sole Purpose Of Demonstrating And Proving To Me, The More Deeply Engrossed I Became In My Studies, That I Was An Utterly Absurd Person
Hard Work
Years
Purpose
What Tender And Devoted Mother Wouldn't Be Dismayed And Ill With Terror At Her Son's Or Daughter's Stepping Even One Hair's Breath Off The Beaten Track. No, Better Let Him Be Happy And Live In Comfort Without Originality, Is What Every Mother Thinks When She Rocks The Cradle. The Only Person Among Us Who Can Fail To Reach The General's Rank Is The Original Man - In Other Words, The Man Who Won't Be Quiet.
Daughter
Mother
Creativity
We Are Citizens Of Eternity.
Citizens
Eternity
The Man Who Lies To Himself And Listens To His Own Lie Comes To Such A Pass That He Cannot Distinguish The Truth Within Him.
Respect
Lying
Men
It's The Moon That Makes It So Still, Weaving Some Mystery.
Moon
Weaving
Mystery
It Is Necessary That Every Man Have At Least Somewhere To Go. For There Are Times When One Absolutely Must Go At Least Somewhere!
Men
Every Man
... You Can Never Be Sure Of What Has Passed Between Husband And Wife Or Lover And Mistress.
Marriage
Husband
Wife
Love Every Leaf, Every Ray Of Light. Love The Animals, Love The Plants, Love Each Separate Thing. Loving All, You Will Perceive The Mystery Of God In All.
Animal
Light
Environmental
But Men Love Abstract Reasoning And Neat Systematization So Much That They Think Nothing Of Distorting The Truth, Closing Their Eyes And Ears To Contrary Evidence To Preserve Their Logical Constructions.
Eye
Men
Thinking
My Friends, God Is Necessary For Me If Only Because He Is The One Being Who Can Be Loved Eternally.
My Friends
Ifs
Eh, Brother, But Nature Has To Be Corrected And Guided, Otherwise We'd All Drown In Prejudices. Without That There Wouldn't Be Even A Single Great Man.
Brother
Men
Prejudice
The Man Who Lies To Himself Can Be More Easily Offended Than Anyone Else. You Know It Is Sometimes Very Pleasant To Take Offense, Isn't It? A Man May Know That Nobody Has Insulted Him, But That He Has Invented The Insult For Himself, Has Lied And Exaggerated To Make It Picturesque, Has Caught At A Word And Made A Mountain Out Of A Molehill--he Knows That Himself, Yet He Will Be The First To Take Offense, And Will Revel In His Resentment Till He Feels Great Pleasure In It.
Lying
Men
Insulted Him
Granted I Am A Babbler, A Harmless Vexatious Babbler, Like All Of Us. But What Is To Be Done If The Direct And Sole Vocation Of Every Intelligent Man Is Babble, That Is, The Intentional Pouring Of Water Through A Sieve?
Men
Intelligent
Water
I Feel Pity For Him, And That Is A Poor Sign Of Love.
Pity
Poor
Signs Of Love
I Could Not Become Anything; Neither Good Nor Bad; Neither A Scoundrel Nor An Honest Man; Neither A Hero Nor An Insect. And Now I Am Eking Out My Days In My Corner, Taunting Myself With The Bitter And Entirely Useless Consolation That An Intelligent Man Cannot Seriously Become Anything, That Only A Fool Can Become Something.
Hero
Intelligent
Men
Though I Do Not Believe In The Order Of Things, Still The Sticky Little Leaves That Come Out In The Spring Are Dear To Me, The Blue Sky Is Dear To Me, Some People Are Dear To Me, Whom One Loves Sometimes, Would You Believe It, Without Even Knowing Why; Some Human Deeds Are Dear To Me, Which One Has Perhaps Long Ceased Believing In, But Still Honors With One's Heart, Out Of Old Habit..." --ivan Karamazov
Spring
Believe
Heart
The Enemies Of Living Life; Outdated Little Liberals, Afraid Of Their Own Independence; Lackeys Of Thought, Enemies Of The Person And Freedom, Decrepit Preachers Of Carrion And Rot! What Do They Have: Gray Heads, The Golden Mean, The Most Abject And Philistine Giftlessness, Envious Equality, Equality Without Personal Dignity, Equality As Understood By A Lackey Or A Frenchman Of The Year Ninety-three...and Scoundrells, Above All, Scoundrels, Scoundrels Everywhere!
Live Life
Mean
Years
Destroy My Desires, Eradicate My Ideals, Show Me Something Better, And I Will Follow You.
Desire
Show Me
Something Better
Every Decent Man Of Our Age Must Be A Coward And A Slave. That Is His Normal Condition. Of That I Am Firmly Persuaded. He Is Made And Constructed To That Very End. And Not Only At The Present Time Owing To Some Casual Circumstance, But Always, At All Times, A Decent Man Is Bound To Be A Coward And A Slave.
Men
Age
Coward
If She Had Ordered Me To Throw Myself Down Then, I Would Have Done It! If She Had Said It Only As A Joke, Said It With Contempt, Spitting On Me--even Then I Would Have Jumped!
Done
Said
Contempt
One's Own Free And Unfettered Volition, One's Own Caprice, However Wild, One's Own Fancy, Inflamed Sometimes To The Point Of Madness - That Is The One Best And Greatest Good, Which Is Never Taken Into Consideration Because It Cannot Fit Into Any Classification And The Omission Of Which Sends All Systems And Theories To The Devil.
Taken
Omission
Devil
What Makes A Hero? Courage, Strength, Morality, Withstanding Adversity? Are These The Traits That Truly Show And Create A Hero? Is The Light Truly The Source Of Darkness Or Vice Versa? Is The Soul A Source Of Hope Or Despair? Who Are These So Called Heroes And Where Do They Come From? Are Their Origins In Obscurity Or In Plain Sight?
Hero
Adversity
Light
How Many Ideas Have There Been In The History Of Man Which Were Unthinkable Ten Years Before They Appeared?
Men
Years
Ideas
In The End They Will Lay Their Freedom At Our Feet And Say To Us, Make Us Your Slaves, But Feed Us.
Food
Feet
Libertarian
Of Course Boredom May Lead You To Anything. It Is Boredom Sets One Sticking Golden Pins Into People, But All That Would Not Matter. What Is Bad (this Is My Comment Again) Is That I Dare Say People Will Be Thankful For The Gold Pins Then.
People
Boredom
Being Thankful
I've Always Considered Myself Smarter Than Everyone Around Me, And Sometimes, Believe Me, I've Been Ashamed Of It. At The Least, All My Life I've Looked Away And Never Could Look People Straight In The Eye.
Believe
Eye
People
The Degree Of Civilization In A Society Can Be Judged By Entering Its Prisons.
Honesty
Integrity
Character
The Absurd Is Only Too Necessary On Earth. The World Stands On Absurdities.
World
Earth
Absurd
My Soul Bleeds And The Blood Steadily, Silently, Disturbingly Slowly, Swallows Me Whole.
Blood
Soul
Whole
You See, Gentlemen, Reason Is An Excellent Thing, There’s No Disputing That, But Reason Is Nothing But Reason And Satisfies Only The Rational Side Of Man’s Nature, While Will Is A Manifestation Of The Whole Life, That Is, Of The Whole Human Life Including Reason And All The Impulses. And Although Our Life, In This Manifestation Of It, Is Often Worthless, Yet It Is Life And Not Simply Extracting Square Roots.
Men
Squares
Roots
Only To Live, To Live And Live! Life, Whatever It May Be!
Live Life
Punishment
May
The World Will Be Saved By Beauty.
World
Saved
Come, Try, Give Any One Of Us, For Instance, A Little More Independence, Untie Our Hands, Widen The Spheres Of Our Activity, Relax The Control And We...yes, I Assure You...we Should Be Begging To Be Under Control Again At Once.
Hands
Giving
Independence
In Order To Love Simply, It Is Necessary To Know How To Show Love.
Romantic
Order
Romance
...chance May Do Anything.
May
Chance
I Have In My Own Life Merely Carried To The Extreme That Which You Have Never Ventured To Carry Even Halfway ; And What's More, You've Regarded Your Cowardice As Prudence, And Found Comfort In Deceiving Yourselves. So That, In Fact, I May Be Even More "alive" Than You Are. Do Take A Closer Look!
Comfort
Looks
Alive
But Gamblers Know How A Man Can Sit For Almost Twenty-four Hours At Cards, Without Looking To Right, Or To Left.
Men
Twenties
Cards
Life Is Paradise, And We Are All In Paradise, But We Refuse To See It.
Paradise
Life Is
Refuse
I Am Crazy About Mysterious Things.
Crazy
Mysterious Things
Mysterious
On An Exceptionally Hot Evening Early In July A Young Man Came Out Of The Garret In Which He Lodged In S. Place And Walked Slowly, As Though In Hesitation, Towards K. Bridge.
Men
July
Bridges
He Who Desires To See The Living God Face-to-face Should Not Seek Him In The Empty, Firmament Of His Mind, But In Human Love.
Mind
Desire
Faces
Brother, I’m Not Depressed And Haven’t Lost Spirit. Life Everywhere Is Life, Life Is In Ourselves And Not In The External. There Will Be People Near Me, And To Be A Human Being Among Human Beings, And Remain One Forever, No Matter What Misfortunes Befall, Not To Become Depressed, And Not To Falter – This Is What Life Is, Herein Lies Its Task.
Brother
Lying
People
The World Stands On Absurdities, And Without Them Perhaps Nothing At All Would Happen.
World
Absurdity
Happens
That's Just The Point: An Honest And Sensitive Man Opens His Heart, And The Man Of Business Goes On Eating - And Then He Eats You Up.
Heart
Men
Sensitive Man
Know That I've Forgotten Precisely Nothing; But I've Driven It All Out Of My Head For A Time, Even The Memories--until I've Radically Improved My Circumstances. Then...then You'll See, I'll Rise From The Dead!
Memories
Forgotten
Driven
He Who Masters The Grey Everyday Is A Hero.
Hero
Everyday
Masters
Being In Love Doesn't Mean Loving.
Mean
Being In Love
Since Man Cannot Live Without Miracles, He Will Provide Himself With Miracles Of His Own Making. He Will Believe In Witchcraft And Sorcery, Even Though He May Otherwise Be A Heretic, An Atheist, And A Rebel.
Atheist
Believe
Men
Sometimes A Man Is Intensely, Even Passionately, Attached To Suffering — That Is A Fact.
Adversity
Men
Suffering
Coming At Twenty To His Father's House, Which Was A Very Sink Of Filthy Debauchery, He, Chaste And Pure As He Was, Simply Withdrew In Silence When To Look On Was Unbearable, But Without The Slightest Sign Of Contempt Or Condemnation. His Father, Who Had Once Been In A Dependent Position, And So Was Sensitive And Ready To Take Offense, Met Him At First With Distrust And Sullenness.
Father
Silence
House
Loving Someone Is Different From Being In Love With Someone. You Can Hate Someone You're In Love With
Hate
Being In Love
Loving Someone
Schoolboys Are A Merciless Race, Individually They Are Angels, But Together, Especially In Schools, They Are Often Merciless.
School
Angel
Race
Neither Man Nor Nation Can Exist Without A Sublime Idea.
Men
Ideas
Sublime
With Love One Can Live Even Without Happiness.
Love
Inspirational
Best Love
What Is Most Vile And Despicable About Money Is That It Even Confers Talent. And It Will Do So Until The End Of The World.
World
Ridiculous
Talent
How Good Life Is When One Does Something Good And Just!
Kindness
Good Life
Doe
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.
Never Forget
Complicated
Motive
Wealth Is The Number Of Things One Can Do Without.
Numbers
Wealth
Can Do
Let Us First Fulfill Christ's Injunction Ourselves And Only Then Venture To Expect It Of Our Children. Otherwise We Are Not Fathers, But Enemies Of Our Children, And They Are Not Our Children, But Our Enemies, And We Have Made Them Our Enemies Ourselves.
Children
Father
Enemy
It Seemed Clear To Me That Life And The World Somehow Depended Upon Me Now. I May Almost Say That The World Now Seemed Created For Me Alone: If I Shot Myself The World Would Cease To Be At Least For Me. I Say Nothing Of Its Being Likely That Nothing Will Exist For Anyone When I Am Gone, And That As Soon As My Consciousness Is Extinguished The Whole World Will Vanish Too And Become Void Like A Phantom , As A Mere Appurtenance Of My Consciousness, For Possibly All This World And All These People Are Only Me Myself.
People
Gone
World
There Is No Idea, No Fact, Which Could Not Be Vulgarized And Presented In A Ludicrous Light.
Light
Ideas
Facts
I Must Add... My Gratitude To You For The Attention With Which You Have Listened To Me, For, From My Numerous Observations, Our Liberals Are Never Capable Of Letting Anyone Else Have A Conviction Of His Own Without At Once Meeting Their Opponent With Abuse Or Even Something Worse.
Gratitude
Abuse
Add
I Have No Self-respect. But Can A Man Of Acute Sensibility Respect Himself At All?
Men
Self
Self Respect
There Is Not A Thing That Is More Positive Than Bread.
Food
Baking Bread
Bread
To Kill Someone For Committing Murder Is A Punishment Incomparably Worse Than The Crime Itself. Murder By Legal Sentence Is Immeasurably More Terrible Than Murder By Brigands.
Punishment
Murder
Crime
Above All, Don't Lie To Yourself. The Man Who Lies To Himself And Listens To His Own Lie Comes To A Point That He Cannot Distinguish The Truth Within Him, Or Around Him, And So Loses All Respect For Himself And For Others. And Having No Respect He Ceases To Love.
Love
Life
Respect
One Must Love Life Before Loving Its Meaning ... Yes, And When The Love Of Life Disappears, No Meaning Can Console Us.
Love Life
Disappear
Console
Because Everyone Is Guilty For Everyone Else. For All The 'wee Ones,' Because There Are Little Children And Big Children. All People Are 'wee Ones.' And I'll Go For All Of Them, Because There Must Be Someone Who Will Go For All Of Them.
Children
People
Littles
There Is Only One Thing That I Dread: Not To Be Worthy Of My Sufferings.
Suffering
Dignity
Worthy
Man Is A Creative Animal, Doomed To Strive Toward A Goal, Engaged In Full-time Engineering.
Animal
Men
Engineering
Realists Do Not Fear The Results Of Their Study.
Fear
Deep Thought
Study
It Was A Wonderful Night, Such A Night As Is Only Possible When We Are Young, Dear Reader.
Night
Wonderful
Young
Love Children Especially, For They Too Are Sinless Like The Angels; They Live To Soften And Purify Our Hearts And, As It Were, To Guide Us.
Children
Heart
Angel
To Love Is To Suffer And There Can Be No Love Otherwise.
Love
Love Is
Suffering
We Have All Lost Touch With Life, We All Limp, Each To A Greater Or Lesser Degree.
Degrees
Lost
Greater
I Tell You Solemnly, That I Have Many Times Tried To Become An Insect. But I Was Not Equal Even To That. I Swear, Gentlemen, That To Be Too Conscious Is An Illness — A Real Thorough-going Illness.
Real
Gentleman
Illness
I Know That You Don't Believe It, But Indeed, Life Will Bring You Through. You Will Live It Down In Time. What You Need Now Is Fresh Air, Fresh Air, Fresh Air!
Believe
Air
Punishment
Listen, In Dreams And Especially In Nightmares, From Indigestion Or Anything, A Man Sees Sometimes Such Artistic Visions, Such Complex And Real Actuality, Such Events, Even A Whole World Of Events, Woven Into Such A Plot, With Such Unexpected Details From The Most Exalted Matters To The Last Button On A Cuff, As I Swear Leo Tolstoy Has Never Invented.
Dream
Real
Men
Man Is Bound To Lie About Himself
Lying
Men
Bounds
Everything Seems Stupid When It Fails.
Stupid
Failing
Seems
The Formula 'two And Two Make Five' Is Not Without Its Attractions.
Two
Perspective
Formulas
And You're Sorry That The Ephemeral Beauty Has Faded So Rapidly, So Irretrievably, That It Flashed So Deceptively And Pointlessly Before Your Eyes - You're Sorry, For You Didn't Even Have Time To Fall In Love.
Falling In Love
Sorry
Eye
You Ache With It All; And The More Mysterious It Is, The More You Ache.
Mysterious
Ache
Man Is Sometimes Extraordinarily, Passionately, In Love With Suffering.
Love
Men
Suffering
I Bless The Rising Sun Each Day, And, As Before, My Heart Sings To Meet It, But Now I Love Even More Its Setting, Its Long Slanting Rays & The Soft Tender Gentle Memories That Come With Them...’ -father Zossima
Memories
Father
Heart
Russians Alone Are Able To Combine So Many Opposites In Themselves At One And The Same Time.
Opposites
Able
I Sometimes Think Love Consists Precisely Of The Voluntary Gift By The Loved Object Of The Right To Tyrannize Over It.
Thinking
Sometimes
Over It
The Best Way To Keep A Prisoner From Escaping Is To Make Sure He Never Knows He's In Prison.
Escaping
Way
Prison
For The Secret Of Man's Being Is Not Only To Live But To Have Something To Live For. Without A Stable Conception Of The Object Of Life, Man Would Not Consent To Go On Living, And Would Rather Destroy Himself Than Remain On Earth, Though He Had Bread In Abundance.
Men
Secret
Goes On
...it All, Maybe, Most Likely, Indeed, Might Turn Out For The Best.
Might
Turns
If You Can Put The Question, 'am I Or Am I Not Responsible For My Acts?' Then You Are Responsible.
Responsible
Ifs
Lying To Ourselves Is More Deeply Ingrained Than Lying To Others.
Truth
Lying
Deceiving Others
Ah, Misha, He Has A Stormy Spirit. His Mind Is In Bondage. He Is Haunted By A Great, Unsolved Doubt. He Is One Of Those Who Don't Want Millions, But An Answer To Their Questions.
Doubt
Mind
Answers
At First It Was Simply Liking, Nastenka, But Now, Now ! I Am Just In The Same Position As You Were When You Went To Him With Your Bundle. In A Worse Position Than You, Nastenka,because He Cared For No One Else As You Do.
Firsts
Bundles
Position
I Punish Myself For My Whole Life, My Whole Life I Punish.
Whole Life
Whole
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.
Joy
Humanity
Desire
Fathers, Provoke Not Your Children To Wrath.
Karma
Children
Father
Forgive Me... For My Love -for Ruining You With My Love.
Forgive Me
Forgiving
If You Want To Overcome The Whole World, Overcome Yourself.
Overcoming
World
Want
I Have A Plan-to Go Mad.
Depression
Mad
Mental Illness
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.
Profound
Ridiculous
Left
I Believe There Is No One Deeper, Lovelier, More Sympathetic And More Perfect Than Jesus.
Jesus
Believe
Perfect
The Darker The Night, The Brighter The Stars, The Deeper The Grief, The Closer Is God!
Good Night
God
Stars
If You Are Penitent, You Love. And If You Love You Are Of God. All Things Are Atoned For, All Things Are Saved By Love. If I, A Sinner Even As You Are, Am Tender With You And Have Pity On You, How Much More Will God Have Pity Upon You. Love Is Such A Priceless Treasure That You Can Redeem The Whole World By It, And Cleanse Not Only Your Own Sins But The Sins Of Others.
Life
Love You
Love Is
It Is Easier For A Russian To Become An Atheist, Than For Any Other Nationality In The World. And Not Only Does A Russian 'become An Atheist,' But He Actually Believes In Atheism, Just As Though He Had Found A New Faith, Not Perceiving That He Has Pinned His Faith To A Negation. Such Is Our Anguish Of Thirst!
Atheist
Believe
Atheism
But People Will Laugh At All Sorts Of Things.
People
Laughing
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.
Wisdom
Truth
Lying
Man Is A Pliable Animal, A Being Who Gets Accustomed To Everything!
Animal
Men
Adaptation
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.
Confidence
Respect
Self Esteem
If They Drive God From The Earth, We Shall Shelter Him Underground.
Deep Thought
Earth
Shelter
Don't Think I'm Talking Nonsense Because I'm Drunk. I'm Not A Bit Drunk. Brandy's All Very Well, But I Need Two Bottles To Make Me Drunk.
Thinking
Talking
Two
What Terrible Tragedies Realism Inflicts On People.
Reality
People
Tragedy
One Must First Learn To Live Oneself Before One Blames Others.
Firsts
Blame
Oneself
For If There's No Everlasting God, There's No Such Thing As Virtue, And There's No Need Of It.
Needs
Virtue
Everlasting
Beauty Would Save The World.
Deep Thought
World
Save The World
But Twice-two-makes-four Is For All That A Most Insupportable Thing. Twice-two-makes-four Is, In My Humble Opinion, Nothing But A Piece Of Impudence. Twice-two-makes-four Is A Farcical, Dressed-up Fellow Who Stands Across Your Path With Arms Akimbo And Spits At You.
Humble
Math
Two
No, I Can't Admit It. Brother,' Said Alyosha Suddenly, With Flashing Eyes, 'you Said Just Now, Is There A Being In The Whole World Who Would Have The Right To Forgive And Could Firgive? But There Is A Being And He Can Forgive Everything, All And For All, Because He Gave His Innocent Blood For All And Everything. You Have Forgotten Him, And On Him Is Built The Edifice, And It Is To Him They Cry Aloud, "thou Art Just, O Lord, For Thy Ways Are Revealed!
Art
Brother
Eye
Without God All Things Are Permitted.
All Things
Without God
There Are Things Which A Man Is Afraid To Tell Even To Himself, And Every Decent Man Has A Number Of Such Things Stored Away In His Mind.
Men
Numbers
Finding Yourself
Whether One Showed You And Execution Or A Little Finger, You Would Extract An Equally Edifying Thought From Both Of Them, And Would Still Be Content. That's The Way To Get On In Life.
Execution
Littles
Way
I Can See The Sun, But Even If I Cannot See The Sun, I Know That It Exists. And To Know That The Sun Is There - That Is Living.
Sun
Brothers Karamazov
Knows
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?
Heart
Understanding
Mind
Trending Author
Bobby Jindal
Eva Herzigova
Annette Bening
Joe Slovo
Nina Garcia
James L. Farmer, Jr.
Category
Information