1,167 Quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

He does not like showing his feelings and would rather do a cruel thing than open his heart freely.

E la letteratura è una bella cosa, Varin'ka, una gran bella cosa. È una cosa profonda! Una cosa che fortifica il cuore della gente, che ammaestra. La letteratura è un quadro, cioè, in un certo qual modo è quadro e specchio; passioni, espressioni, critica sottile, ammaestramento deificante, documento.

Only how is [man] going to be virtuous without God? A good question! I keep thinking about it. Because whom will he love then –– man, I mean? To whom will he be thankful, to whom will he sing the hymn?

What terrible tragedies realism inflicts on people . . .

Do you think, you who sold it, that this bottom of yours has been sweet to me? Affliction, I sought affliction at the bottom of it, tears and affliction, and I found them, I tasted them.

El cielo estaba tan estrellado, tan luminoso, que mirándolo no podía uno menos que preguntarse: ¿pero es posible que bajo un cielo como éste pueda vivir tanta gente atrabiliaria y caprichosa? Ésta, amable lector, es también una pregunta de los años mozos, pero Dios quiera que te la hagas a menudo.

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?

It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. The sky was so starry, so bright that, looking at it, one could not help asking oneself whether ill-humoured and capricious people could live under such a sky.

¿Entristecer con mi presencia su felicidad, ser un reproche, marchitar las flores que se puso en los cabellos para ir al altar? ¡Jamás, jamás! ¡Que su cielo sea sereno, que su sonrisa sea clara! Yo te bendigo por el instante de alegría que diste al transeúnte melancólico, extraño, solitario… ¡Dios mío! ¿Un instante de felicidad no es suficiente para toda una vida?