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Top 20 Lev Shestov Quotes (2025 Update)

Lev Shestov Quote: “If Darwin had seen in life what Dostoevsky saw, he would not have talked of the law of the preservation of species, but of its destruction.”

1. “If Darwin had seen in life what Dostoevsky saw, he would not have talked of the law of the preservation of species, but of its destruction.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty... not to reassure him, but to upset him.”

2. “The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty... not to reassure him, but to upset him.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Heretics were most often bitterly persecuted for the their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness.”

3. “Heretics were most often bitterly persecuted for the their least deviation from accepted belief. It was precisely their obstinacy about trifles that irritated the righteous to madness.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “It is not man who pursues truth, but truth man.”

4. “It is not man who pursues truth, but truth man.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “The thing to do is to go on, in the same suave tone, from uttering a series of banalities to expressing a new and dangerous thought, without any break. If you succeed in this, the business is done. The reader will not forget – the new words will plague and torment him until he has accepted them.”

5. “The thing to do is to go on, in the same suave tone, from uttering a series of banalities to expressing a new and dangerous thought, without any break. If you succeed in this, the business is done. The reader will not forget – the new words will plague and torment him until he has accepted them.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “If he tells the truth, it is because the most reeking lie no longer intoxicates him, even though he swallow it not in the modest doses that idealism offers, but in immoderate quantities, thousand-gallon-barrel gulps. He would taste the bitterness, but it would not make his head turn, as it does Schiller’s, or Dostoevsky’s, or even Socrates’, whose head, as we know, could stand any quantity of wine, but went spinning with the most commonplace lie.”

6. “If he tells the truth, it is because the most reeking lie no longer intoxicates him, even though he swallow it not in the modest doses that idealism offers, but in immoderate quantities, thousand-gallon-barrel gulps. He would taste the bitterness, but it would not make his head turn, as it does Schiller’s, or Dostoevsky’s, or even Socrates’, whose head, as we know, could stand any quantity of wine, but went spinning with the most commonplace lie.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Whilst stay-at-home persons are searching for truth, the apple will stay on the tree.”

7. “Whilst stay-at-home persons are searching for truth, the apple will stay on the tree.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Herein lies the supreme wisdom, human and divine; and the task of philosophy consists in teaching men to submit joyously to Necessity which hears nothing and is indifferent to all.”

8. “Herein lies the supreme wisdom, human and divine; and the task of philosophy consists in teaching men to submit joyously to Necessity which hears nothing and is indifferent to all.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Objectionable, tedious, irritating labour, – this is the condition of genius, which no doubt explains the reason why men so rarely achieve anything. Genius must submit to cultivate an ass within itself – the condition being so humiliating that man will seldom take up the job.”

9. “Objectionable, tedious, irritating labour, – this is the condition of genius, which no doubt explains the reason why men so rarely achieve anything. Genius must submit to cultivate an ass within itself – the condition being so humiliating that man will seldom take up the job.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “And many a time, towards the end of life, does the genius repent of his choice. “It would be better not to startle the world, but to live at one with it,” says Ibsen in his last drama. Genius is a wretched, blind maniac, whose eccentricities are condoned because of what is got from him.”

10. “And many a time, towards the end of life, does the genius repent of his choice. “It would be better not to startle the world, but to live at one with it,” says Ibsen in his last drama. Genius is a wretched, blind maniac, whose eccentricities are condoned because of what is got from him.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “After a tragedy, a farce. Philosophy enters into her power, and the earth returns under one’s feet.”

11. “After a tragedy, a farce. Philosophy enters into her power, and the earth returns under one’s feet.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Once an idea is there, the gates must be opened to it.”

12. “Once an idea is there, the gates must be opened to it.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Although we had had no precise exponents of realism, yet after Pushkin it was impossible for a Russian writer to depart too far from actuality. Even those who did not know what to do with “real life” had to cope with it as best they could. Hence, in order that the picture of life should not prove too depressing, the writer must provide himself in due season with a philosophy.”

13. “Although we had had no precise exponents of realism, yet after Pushkin it was impossible for a Russian writer to depart too far from actuality. Even those who did not know what to do with “real life” had to cope with it as best they could. Hence, in order that the picture of life should not prove too depressing, the writer must provide himself in due season with a philosophy.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Count Tolstoy preached inaction. It seems he had no need. We “inact” remarkably. Idleness, just that idleness Tolstoy dreamed of, a free, conscious idling that despises labour, this is one of the chief characteristics of our time.”

14. “Count Tolstoy preached inaction. It seems he had no need. We “inact” remarkably. Idleness, just that idleness Tolstoy dreamed of, a free, conscious idling that despises labour, this is one of the chief characteristics of our time.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “They certified that I was sane; but I know that I am mad.” This confession gives us the key to what is most important and significant in Tolstoy’s hidden life.”

15. “They certified that I was sane; but I know that I am mad.” This confession gives us the key to what is most important and significant in Tolstoy’s hidden life.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “To praise oneself is considered improper, immodest; to praise one’s own sect, one’s own philosophy, is considered the highest duty.”

16. “To praise oneself is considered improper, immodest; to praise one’s own sect, one’s own philosophy, is considered the highest duty.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “Pushkin could cry hot tears, and he who can weep can hope. “I want to live, so that I may think and suffer,” he says; and it seems as if the word “to suffer,” which is so beautiful in the poem, just fell in accidentally, because there was no better rhyme in Russian for “to die.”

17. “Pushkin could cry hot tears, and he who can weep can hope. “I want to live, so that I may think and suffer,” he says; and it seems as if the word “to suffer,” which is so beautiful in the poem, just fell in accidentally, because there was no better rhyme in Russian for “to die.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “When man finds in himself a certain defect, of which he can by no means rid himself, there remains but to accept the so-called failing as a natural quality. The more grave and important the defect, the more urgent is the need to ennoble it.”

18. “When man finds in himself a certain defect, of which he can by no means rid himself, there remains but to accept the so-called failing as a natural quality. The more grave and important the defect, the more urgent is the need to ennoble it.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “When a person is young he writes because it seems to him he has discovered a new almighty truth which he must make haste to impart to forlorn humankind. Later, becoming more modest, he begins to doubt his truths: and then he tries to convince himself. A few more years go by, and he knows he was mistaken all round, so there is no need to convince himself. Nevertheless he continues to write, because he is not fit for any other work, and to be accounted a superfluous person is so horrible.”

19. “When a person is young he writes because it seems to him he has discovered a new almighty truth which he must make haste to impart to forlorn humankind. Later, becoming more modest, he begins to doubt his truths: and then he tries to convince himself. A few more years go by, and he knows he was mistaken all round, so there is no need to convince himself. Nevertheless he continues to write, because he is not fit for any other work, and to be accounted a superfluous person is so horrible.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “If you turn to the right, you will marry, if to the left, you will be killed.” A true philosopher never chooses the middle course; he needs no riches, he does not know what to do with money. But whether he turns to the right or to the left, nothing pleasant awaits him.”

20. “If you turn to the right, you will marry, if to the left, you will be killed.” A true philosopher never chooses the middle course; he needs no riches, he does not know what to do with money. But whether he turns to the right or to the left, nothing pleasant awaits him.”

— Lev Shestov

Lev Shestov Quote: “But nobody has ever yet called a philosopher “a hired conscience,” though everybody gives the lawyer this nickname. Why this partiality?”

21. “But nobody has ever yet called a philosopher “a hired conscience,” though everybody gives the lawyer this nickname. Why this partiality?”

— Lev Shestov

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