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
Can a man of perception respect himself at all?
Interpretation
This quote questions the self-respect of those who possess deep perception and insight.
Fyodor Dostoevsky poses a profound question about the nature of self-respect in relation to perception. It suggests that a man with keen awareness and sensitivity to the world may struggle with self-acceptance due to the weight of his insights, challenges, or the moral complexities he understands. This interplay between perception and self-respect invites contemplation on the burdens carried by those who see beyond superficiality.
In practice
During a seminar on self-awareness, one might use this quote to challenge participants to reflect on their own perceptions and self-regard.
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.
Our entire life, with our fine moral code and our precious freedom, consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.
Our Founding Fathers understood that our country would survive and flourish if our Nation was committed to good character and an unyielding dedication to liberty and justice for all.
The Land of Israel will be small, but the people of Israel will make it great. Not _x000D_ in opulence, but in eminence will their destiny be fulfilled, and the elixir of their_x000D_ pride will be distilled not out of dominion or far-flung borders, but out of the_x000D_ faithful and skillful building of the good society.
My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife.
We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.
Every man on earth is sick with the fever of sin, with the blindness of sin and is overcome with its fury. As sins consist mostly of malice and pride, it is necessary to treat everyone who suffers from the malady of sin with kindness and love. This is an important truth, which we often forget. Very often we act in the opposite manner: we add malice to malice by our anger, we oppose pride with pride. Thus, evil grows within us and does not decrease; it is not cured - rather it spreads
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