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
He who desires to see the living God face-to-face should not seek him in the empty, firmament of his mind, but in human love.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True understanding of God comes through love for humanity rather than abstract thought.
This quote emphasizes that an authentic relationship with the divine cannot be found purely through intellectual pursuits or contemplative thought. Instead, it suggests that experiencing and expressing love towards others is the path to encountering the living God, highlighting the importance of human connections in spiritual understanding.
Themes
GodLoveHumanitySpiritualityConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of compassion, one might quote Dostoevsky to emphasize the role of love in understanding spirituality.
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
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings_x000D_ _x000D_ That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
William ShakespeareRead
Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort’s world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort’s followers!” “Of course I haven’t!” said Harry indignantly. “He killed my mum and dad!” “You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!” said Dumbledore loudly.
J. K. RowlingRead
The person one loves never really exists, but is a projection focused through the lens of the mind onto whatever screen it fits with least distortion.
Arthur C. ClarkeRead
I happen to be colorblind. Racism is not my motto. One day, I strongly expect every color to love as one family.
Michael JacksonRead
Love has to spring spontaneously from within And it is no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together; But though love cannot be forced on anyone, It can be awakened in him through love itself. Love is essentially self communicative; Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. True love is unconquerable and irresistible, And it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, Until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.
Meher BabaRead
Hot hate is twin brother to hot love.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead