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 seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our later life is often a reflection of the habits we develop earlier.
This quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky suggests that the habits and behaviors we cultivate in our youth significantly shape the course of our later years. It implies that our character and life path are largely determined by the accumulation of these habits, reinforcing the importance of conscious choices in the early stages of life.
Themes
HabitsLifeChoicesCharacterReflection
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal development.
More from Fyodor Dostoevsky
All quotes βWhat 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
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.
Hannah ArendtRead
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
James Russell LowellRead
If our body is a perfect expression of our thought about body, and if our thought about body is that itβs condition has everything to do with inner image and nothing to do with time, then we donβt have to be impatient for being too young or frightened of being too old.
Richard BachRead
The distance runner is mysteriously reconciling the separations of body and mind, of pain and pleasure, of the conscious and the unconscious. He is repairing the rent, and healing the wound in his divided self. He has found a way to make the ordinary extraordinary; the commonplace unique; the everyday eternal.
George A. SheehanRead
When you're operating on uninvestigated theories of what's going on and you aren't even aware of it, you're in what I call "the dream." Often the dream becomes troubling; sometimes it even turns into a nightmare. At times like these, you may want to test the truth of your theories by doing The Work on them. The Work always leaves you with less of your uncomfortable story. Who would you be without it? How much of your world is made up of unexamined stories? You'll never know until you inquire.
Byron KatieRead