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
Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a willingness to abandon personal desires and beliefs in pursuit of a deeper truth or better path.
Fyodor Dostoevsky's quote reflects the profound human desire for connection to something greater than oneself. It suggests that if someone can illuminate a better way of living or understanding, one is willing to let go of their personal aspirations and principles. This speaks to the need for guidance and the search for meaning in life, highlighting the innate tendency to follow leaders who inspire and elevate us.
In practice
This quote can be used during a personal development workshop to inspire participants to let go of limiting beliefs.
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.
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.
Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
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.
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!
...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.
Remember this, the choices you make in life, make you.
I am tired of the position of the dried-up critic and doubter. The believer is the true full man. (from a biography of James by Robert D. Richardson)
To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.
I often don't know what I'll be working on next year or a year from now. There is often a chance meeting, or something that I worked on 10 years ago suddenly becomes important again.
What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse.
Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.
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