1. “Everyone thinks of himself, and he lives most gaily who knows best how to deceive himself.”
2. “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.”
3. “The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.”
4. “To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”
5. “From a hundred rabbits you can’t make a horse, a hundred suspicions don’t make a proof,”
6. “It is not time that matters, but you yourself”
7. “The people who have nothing to lock up are the happy ones, aren’t they?”
8. “That’s just the point: an honest and sensitive man opens his heart, and the man of business goes on eating – and then he eats you up.”
9. “We’ve got facts,” they say. But facts aren’t everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them!”
10. “We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is.”
11. “And what if, besides love, there can be no respect either, if on the contrary there is already loathing, contempt, revulsion—what then?”
12. “Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!.”
13. “The whole question here is: am I a monster, or a victim myself?.”
14. “When reason fails, the devil helps!”
15. “But you are a great sinner, that’s true,” he added almost solemnly, and your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”
16. “You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won’t be wiser?.”
17. “Existence alone had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more. Perhaps it was only from the force of his desires that he had regarded himself as a man to whom more was permitted than to others.”
18. “What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind-then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it’s all as it should be.”
19. “Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!.”
20. “Break what must be broken, once for all, that’s all, and take the suffering on oneself.”
21. “It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.”
22. “Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a broad consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great men I think, must feel great sorrow in this world.”
23. “It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.”
24. “Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it … one must have the courage to dare.”
25. “Life is given to me only once, and never will be again—I don’t want to sit waiting for universal happiness. I want to live myself; otherwise it’s better not to live at all.”
26. “Was it all put into words, or did both understand that they had the same thing at heart and in their minds, so that there was no need to speak of it aloud, and better not to speak of it?.”
27. “Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.”
28. “It’s the moon that makes it so still, weaving some mystery.”
29. “Fear of aesthetics is the first sign of powerlessness.”
30. “Love had raised them from the dead, and the heart of each held endless springs of life for the heart of the other.”
31. “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”
32. “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.”
33. “Indeed, in that sense we’re all rather often almost like mad people, only with the slight difference that the ‘sick’ are somewhat madder than we are, so that it’s necessary to draw a line here.”
34. “Reason is the slave of passion.”
35. “I used to analyze myself down to the last thread, used to compare myself with others, recalled all the smallest glances, smiles and words of those to whom I’d tried to be frank, interpreted everything in a bad light, laughed viciously at my attempts ‘to be like the rest’ –and suddenly, in the midst of my laughing, I’d give way to sadness, fall into ludicrous despondency and once again start the whole process all over again – in short, I went round and round like a squirrel on a wheel.”
36. “The truly great are, in my view, always bound to feel a great sense of sadness during their time upon earth.”
37. “there are certain persons who can… that is, not precisely are able to, but have a perfect right to commit breaches of morality and crimes, and that the law is not for them.”
38. “Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind.”
39. “She said nothing, she only looked at me without a word. But it hurts more, it hurts more when they don’t blame!.”
40. “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…”
41. “Truly great men must, I think, experience great sorrow on the earth.”
42. “It is man’s unique privilege, among all other organisms. By pursuing falsehood you will arrive at the truth!.”
43. “I drink because I wish to multiply my sufferings.”
44. “I like it when people lie! Lying is man’s only privilege over all other organisms. If you lie—you get to the truth! Lying is what makes me a man. Not one truth has ever been reached without first lying fourteen times or so, maybe a hundred and fourteen, and that’s honorable in its way; well, but we can’t even lie with our own minds!”
45. “Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.”
46. “People with new ideas, people with the faintest capacity for saying something new, are extremely few in number, extraordinarily so, in fact.”
47. “He was hopelessly in debt to his landlady, and was afraid of meeting her.”
48. “There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery.”
49. “He was one of ourselves, a man of our blood and our bone, but one who has suffered and has seen so much more deeply than we have his insight impresses us as wisdom… that wisdom of the heart which we seek that we may learn from it how to live. All his other gifts came to him from nature, this he won for himself and through it he became great.”
50. “We all have chance meetings with people, even with complete strangers, who interest us at first glance, suddenly, before a word is spoken.”
51. “Raskolnikov sat in silence, listening with disgust.”
52. “The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment– as well as prison.”
53. “She looked much younger than her age, indeed, which is almost always the case with women who retain serenity of spirit, sensitiveness and pure sincere warmth of heart to old age.”
54. “I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity,”
55. “…everyone needs a somewhere, a place he can go. There comes a time, you see, inevitably there comes a time you have to have a somewhere you can go!.”
56. “The perpetration of a crime is accompanied by illness!”
57. “If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be punishment as well as the prison.”
58. “Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen.”
59. “Money is the honey of humanity.”
60. “You shouldn’t have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that’s no occupation for a gentleman.”
61. “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
62. “If one wants to know any man well, one must consider him gradually and carefully, so as not to fall into error and prejudice, which are very difficult to correct and smooth out later.”
63. “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.”
64. “What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?”
65. “The servants used to say, ‘he read himself silly.”
66. “Everything seems stupid when it fails.”
67. “He was one of the numerous and varied legion of dullards, of half-animated abortions, conceited, half-educated coxcombs, who attach themselves to the idea most in fashion only to vulgarize it and who caricature every cause they serve, however sincerely.”
68. “A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof.”
69. “It’s because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing.”
70. “He is a man of intelligence, but to act sensibly, intelligence is not enough.”
71. “We have facts,’ they say. But facts are not everything—at least half the business lies in how you interpret them!.”
72. “We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath-house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is.”
73. “You’re a gentleman,” they used to say to him. “You shouldn’t have gone murdering people with a hatchet; that’s no occupation for a gentleman.”
74. “It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of.”
75. “Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.”
76. “Catch several hares and you won’t catch one.”
77. “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.”
78. “I agree that ghosts only appear to the sick, but that only proves that they are unable to appear except to the sick, not that they don’t exist.”
79. “Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.”
80. “Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart.”
81. “And the more I drink the more I feel it. That’s why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink…. I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!.”
82. “He doesn’t love anyone, and maybe he never will.”
83. “Truly great men must, I think, experience great sorrow on the earth.”