God
- “Existentialism isn’t so atheistic that it wears itself out showing that God doesn’t exist. Rather, it declares that even if God did exist, that would change nothing.”
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Link - “Without God all things are permitted.”
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Link - “And what’s strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “To love someone means to see them as God intended them.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Link - One man doesn’t believe in god at all, while the other beliefs in him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Link - ““It’s not God that I do not accept, you understand, it is this world of God’s, created by God, that I do not accept and cannot agree to accept.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Christ
- “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
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Prayer
- “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.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
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Divinity
- “Love a man, even in his sin, for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth.”
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Lies
- “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “Above all, avoid lies, all lies, especially the lie to yourself. Keep watch on your own lie and examine it every hour, every minute. And avoid contempt, both of others and of yourself: what seems bad to you in yourself is purified by the very fact that you have noticed it in yourself. And avoid fear, though fear is simply the consequence of every lie. Never be frightened at your own faintheartedness in attaining love, and meanwhile do not even be very frightened by your own bad acts.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.”
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Link - “the most offensive is not their lying—one can always forgive lying—lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth—what is offensive is that they lie and worship their own lying…”
― Crime and Punishment
Link - “Lying is a delightful thing for it leads to the truth.”
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Sin
- “In sinning, each man sins against all, and each man is at least partly guilty for another’s sin. There is no isolated sin.”
― Demons
Link - “Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”
― Crime and Punishment
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Salvation
- “There is only one way to salvation, and that is to make yourself responsible for all men’s sins. As soon as you make yourself responsible in all sincerity for everything and for everyone, you will see at once that this is really so, and that you are in fact to blame for everyone and for all things.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
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Purity
- “Although your mind works, your heart is
darkened with depravity; and without a pure heart there can be no complete andtrue consciousness”
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Faith
- “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.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from the faith.”
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Manipulation
- “To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Life
- “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “But how could you live and have no story to tell?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights
Link - “Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn?” Marmeladov’s question came suddenly into his mind “for every man must have somewhere to turn…”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Link - “Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid – the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Link - “But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days. And even if only one good memory is left in our hearts, it may also be the instrument of our salvation one day.”
― Dostoyevsky Fyodor
Link - “It wasn’t the New World that mattered…Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It’s life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.”
― The Idiot
Link - May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be for ever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn’t such a moment sufficient for the whole of one’s life?”
― White Nights
Link - “I like revisiting, at certain times, spots where I was once happy; I like to shape the present in the image of the irretrievable past.”
― White Nights
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Existence
- “I used to imagine adventures for myself, I invented a life, so that I could at least exist somehow.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
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Cosmos
- “It was a marvelous night, the sort of night one only experiences when one is young. The sky was so bright, and there were so many stars that, gazing upward, one couldn’t help wondering how so many whimsical, wicked people could live under such a sky.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, White Nights and Other Stories
Link - “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Humanity
- “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “The more I love humanity in general the less I love man in particular. In my dreams, I often make plans for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually face crucifixion if it were suddenly necessary. Yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together. I know from experience. As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs me and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I begin to hate the best of men: one because he’s too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I hate men individually the more I love humanity.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “Don’t let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
Link - “I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
Link - “You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one’s heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Cruelty
- “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 Dostoyevsky
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Strangers
- “We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Communication
- “Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Self
- “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Laughter
- “If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don’t bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Sincerity
- “You can be sincere and still be stupid.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Governance
- “It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.”
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Consciousness
- “It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
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Love
- “Love is such a priceless treasure that you can buy the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people’s sins. Go, and do not be afraid.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “To love is to suffer and there can be no love otherwise.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
Link - “Love is a teacher, but one must know how to acquire it, for it is difficult to acquire, it is dearly bought, by long work over a long time, for one ought to love not for a chance moment but for all time. Anyone, even a wicked man, can love by chance.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
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Self Respect
- “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 Dostoyevsky, The Insulted and Humiliated
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Happiness
- “This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Emptiness
- “Yet, I didn’t understand that she was intentionally disguising her feelings with sarcasm; that was usually the last resort of people who are timid and chaste of heart, whose souls have been coarsely and impudently invaded; and who, until the last moment, refuse to yield out of pride and are afraid to express their own feelings to you.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
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Moments
- “My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn’t that enough for a whole lifetime?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights
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Self
- “There is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one’s idea for thirty-five years; there’s something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
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Demons
- “If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
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Satan
- “When reason fails, the devil helps!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Childlike
- “Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
Link - “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.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
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Conscience
- “The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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A Fool
- “A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot
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Candor
- “There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless. ”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Good Deeds
- “What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Heros
- “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?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
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Suffering
- There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.
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Grief
- “It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.”
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Ideas
- “People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Heart
- “I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.”
― White Nights
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Love
- “Love is such a priceless treasure that you can buy the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people’s sins. Go, and do not be afraid.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
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Creation
- “Do you know I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it? How can one talk to a man and not be happy in loving him! Oh, it’s only that I’m not able to express it…And what beautiful things there are at every step, that even the most hopeless man must feel to be beautiful! Look at a child! Look at God’s sunrise! Look at the grass, how it grows! Look at the eyes that gaze at you and love you!…”
― The Idiot
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Nature
- “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.”
― Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
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- “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!”
― Crime and Punishment
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Miracles
- “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.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
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Animals
- “Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.”
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Wisdom
- “Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.”
― Crime and Punishment
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Silence
- “I have so much to say to you that I am afraid I shall tell you nothing.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
Link - “I’m a master of speaking silently—all my life I’ve spoken silently and I’ve lived through entire tragedies in silence.”
― The Gentle Spirit
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Learning in the Open 