Top 500 Fyodor Dostoyevsky Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

2. “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.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

3. “Beauty will save the world.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

4. “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

5. “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

6. “It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

7. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

8. “But how could you live and have no story to tell?”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

9. “The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

10. “If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

11. “This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

12. “If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

13. “To think too much is a disease.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

14. “The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

15. “Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering...”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Featured in: Suffering Quotes

16. “Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

17. “To go wrong in one’s own way is better then to go right in someone else’s.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

18. “To live without Hope is to Cease to live.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

19. “I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

20. “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

21. “If there is no God, then I am God.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

22. “Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

23. “Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

24. “People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

25. “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

26. “Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

27. “The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. “What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

29. “For broad understanding and deep feeling, you need pain and suffering.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Featured in: Understanding Quotes

30. “If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

31. “The world will be saved by beauty.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

32. “Reason is the slave of passion.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

33. “I can see the sun, but even if I cannot see the sun, I know that it exists. And to know that the sun is there – that is living.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

34. “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.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Featured in: Book Quotes

35. “Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

36. “The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Featured in: Suffering Quotes

37. “Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

38. “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

39. “You can be sincere and still be stupid.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

40. “When reason fails, the devil helps!”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

41. “You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

42. “Here is a commandment for you: seek happiness in sorrow. Work, work tirelessly.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

43. “Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

44. “I am alone, I thought, and they are everybody.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

45. “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

46. “When he has lost all hope, all object in life, man becomes a monster in his misery.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

47. “A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

48. “I utter what you would not dare think.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

49. “The Russian soul is a dark place.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

50. “The soul is healed by being with children.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky