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
I wanted to pray for an hour, but I keep thinking and thinking, and always sick thoughts, and my head aches - what is the use of praying? - it's only a sin! It is strange, too, that I am not sleepy: in great, too great sorrow, after the first outbursts one is always sleepy. Men condemned to death, they say, sleep very soundly on the last night. And so it must be, it si the law of nature, otherwise their strength would not hold out... I lay down on the sofa but I did not sleep...
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the futility of prayer when consumed by negative thoughts and the struggle with deep sorrow.
In this quote, Dostoevsky explores the conflict between the desire to find solace in prayer and the overwhelming presence of troubling thoughts that hinder this spiritual pursuit. He suggests that in moments of profound sorrow, one may feel disconnected from prayer, questioning its purpose when faced with mental anguish. The mention of men condemned to death highlights a paradox where, despite external anguish, there is an expectation of inner peace that escapes the sufferer, emphasizing the complex nature of human emotion and mental state.
Themes
PrayerSorrowThoughtsAnguishExistential
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the struggles of faith in times of despair.
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
We are conscious that religions cannot solve the economic, political and social problems of this earth.
Hans KungRead
A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
...the case for individual freedom rests largely on the recognition of the inevitable and universal ignorance of all of us concerning a great many of the factors on which the achievements of our ends and welfare depend.
Friedrich August Von HayekRead
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind.
George BerkeleyRead
The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.
Mikhail BakuninRead
The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.
Golda MeirRead