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 DostoevskyRead
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Brains are important, but character and values are what truly guide actions and decisions.
This quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky emphasizes that intelligence alone does not define a person's worth; rather, it is their character, compassion, and progressive ideas that ultimately influence their actions and the broader impact they have on the world. It suggests that true leadership and success come from qualities that inspire and uplift others, rather than just from intellectual capabilities.
Themes
CharacterValuesLeadershipWisdomHeart
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about leadership qualities.
More from Fyodor Dostoevsky
All quotes →What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
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 DostoevskyRead
But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that if you have the guillotine in the forefront, and with such glee, it's for the sole reason that cutting heads off is the easiest thing, and having an idea is difficult!
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
...to return to their 'native soil,' as they say, to the bosom, so to speak, of their mother earth, like frightened children, yearning to fall asleep on the withered bosom of their decrepit mother, and to sleep there for ever, only to escape the horrors that terrify them.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Similar quotes
That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.
Adlai E. StevensonRead
If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along.
Carl SaganRead
Keep my word positive. Words become my behaviors. Keep my behaviors positive. Behaviors become my habits. Keep my habits positive. Habits become my values. Keep my values positive. Values become my destiny.
Mahatma GandhiRead
When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth!
Miguel Angel RuizRead
Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.
Bertrand RussellRead
For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read