44 Quotes by Nikolai A. Berdyaev

So great is the worth of Dostoevsky that to have produced him is by itself sufficient justification for the existence of the Russian people in the world: and he will bear witness for his country-men at the last judgement of the nations.

The meaning of conservatism is not that it impedes movement forward and upward, but that it impedes movement backwards and downwards – to chaotic darkness and the return to a primitive state.

The Russian yearning for the meaning of life is the major theme of our literature, and this is the real point of our intelligentsia’s existence.

Creativity is the supreme mystery of life, the mystery of the appearance of something new, hitherto unknown, derived from nothing, proceeding from nothing, born of nothing other...

Freedom is the power to create out of nothing, the power of the spirit to create out of itself.

Objectification is above all exteriorization, the alienation of spirit from itself.

Perhaps the saddest thing to admit is that those who rejected the Cross have to carry it, while those who welcomed it are so often engaged in crucifying others.

Every moral act of love, of mercy, and of sacrifice brings to pass the end of the world where hatred, cruelty, and selfishness reign supreme.

Conscience is the spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is not of social origin at all. It is rather the perversion and confusion of conscience that is of social origin.