17 quotes
Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.
The Idiot (1868)
First of all, this prince is an idiot, and, secondly, he is a fool--knows nothing of the world, and has no place in it.
The Idiot (1868)
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 (1868)
A widow, the mother of a family, and from her heart she produces chords to which my whole being responds.
The Idiot (1868)
A fool with a heart and no sense is just as unhappy as a fool with sense and no heart.
The Idiot (1868)
It's easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.
The Idiot (1868)
... the prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.
The Idiot (1868)
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.
The Idiot (1868)
It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise!
The Idiot (1868)
Who consciously throws himself into the water or onto the knife?
The Idiot (1868)
Pass by us, and forgive us our happiness.
The Idiot (1868)
Humiliate the reason and distort the soul...
The Idiot (1868)
To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well.
The Idiot (1868)
Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man...
The Idiot (1868)
I have never in my life met a man like him for noble simplicity, and boundless truthfulness. I understood from the way he talked that anyone who chose could deceive him, and that he would forgive anyone afterwards who had deceived him, and that was why I grew to love him.
The Idiot (1868)
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 (1868)
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 in a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst!
The Idiot (1869)