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
There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Candor is far more challenging than flattery, which is often easier and more enjoyable to accept.
In this quote, Dostoevsky reflects on the intrinsic difficulties of honesty and the allure of flattery. He suggests that while true candor demands authenticity and can lead to discomfort or exposure when even slightly off-key, flattery, regardless of its insincerity, is readily accepted and enjoyed by people, revealing a preference for comfort over truth in human interactions.
Themes
CandorFlatteryHonestyTruthHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about the importance of honesty in leadership.
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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!
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...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
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