Fyodor Dostoevsky

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.

I swear to you, sirs, that excessive consciousness is a disease--a genuine, absolute disease.

It is man's unique privilege, among all other organisms. By pursuing falsehood you will arrive at the truth!

Equality lies only in human moral dignity. ... Let there be brothers first, then there will be brotherhood, and only then will there be a fair sharing of goods among brothers.

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

Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.

He does not like showing his feelings and would rather do a cruel thing than open his heart freely.

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?

Catch several hares and you won't catch one.

If he's alive, everything is in his power! Whose fault is it that he doesn't understand that?

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?

But people will laugh at all sorts of things.

I do not rebel against my God, I simply do not accept his world.

But to fall in love does not mean to love. One can fall in love and still hate.

Love is such a priceless treasure that you can buy the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people's sins. Go, and do not be afraid.

The world stands on absurdities, and without them perhaps nothing at all would happen.

But what are years, what are months!" he would exclaim. "Why count the days, when even one day is enough for man to know all happiness.

.. But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that along with happiness, in the exact same way, in perfectly equal proportion, man also needs unhappiness

And do you know, do you know that mankind can live without the Englishman, it can live without Germany, it can live only too well without the Russian man, it can live without science, without bread, and it only cannot live without beauty, for then there would be nothing at all to do in the world! The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here. Science itself would not stand for a minute without beauty

I don’t understand anything...and I no longer want to understand anything. I want to stick to the fact...If I wanted to understand something, I would immediately have to betray the fact, but I’ve made up my mind to stick to the fact.

But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and perhaps, like a chess-player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself.