133 quotes
I am a ridiculous man. They call me a madman now. That would be a distinct rise in my social position were it not that they still regard me as being as ridiculous as ever.
Is it really not possible to touch the gaming table without being instantly infected by superstition?
The Gambler (1866)
I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
Meanwhile, in their solitude, they keep the image of Christ fair and undefiled, in the purity of God's truth, from the times of the Fathers of old, the Apostles and the martyrs. And when the time comes they will show it to the tottering creeds of the world.
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
Granted that I dreamed it, yet it must have been real. You know, I will tell you a secret: perhaps it was not a dream at all!
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
The question I should like to put to them is, in a nutshell, this: "Do you despise or do you respect mankind, you — its future saviours?"
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 Brothers Karamazov (1879)
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?
Notes from Underground (1864)
Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.
Notes From the Underground (1864)
If there is no immortality, there is no virtue. ... Without God and immortal life? All things are lawful then, they can do what they like?
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
A gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.
The Gambler (1866)
The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.
Crime and Punishment (1866)
There is no sin, and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin which could exceed the love of God?
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
Money is coined liberty, and so it is ten times dearer to the man who is deprived of freedom. If money is jingling in his pocket, he is half consoled, even though he cannot spend it. But money can always and everywhere be spent, and, moreover, forbidden fruit is sweetest of all.
The House of the Dead (1862)
Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms.
Crime and Punishment (1866)
If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground.
The Brothers Karamazov (1879)
People talk sometimes of 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 Brothers Karamazov (1879)
The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness — that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
I gave up caring about anything, and all the problems disappeared.
And it was after that that I found out the truth. I learnt the truth last November — on the third of November, to be precise — and I remember every instant since.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)