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
People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the unique and often sophisticated cruelty of humans compared to animals.
Dostoevsky argues that while humans are often described as bestially cruel, this comparison is misguided. He suggests that animals, while capable of violence, do not possess the same level of intentional and artistic cruelty that humans can inflict upon one another, implying a complex moral capacity that distinguishes humans from beasts.
Themes
CrueltyHuman NaturePhilosophyMoralityDostoevsky
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about human rights and animal rights, this quote can be used to highlight the complexity of human moral failings.
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
Keeping books on social aid is capitalistic nonsense. I just use the money for the poor. I can't stop to count it.
Evita PeronRead
There are many, many nouns for the act of looking - a glance, a glimpse, a peep - but there's no noun for the act of listening. In general, we don't think primarily about sound. So I have a different perspective on the world; I can construct soundscapes that have an effect on people, but they don't know why. It's a sort of subterfuge.
Walter MurchRead
It can in no sense be said that heaven is outside of any one; it is within ... and a man, also, so far as he receives heaven, is a recipient, a heaven, and an angel.
Emanuel SwedenborgRead
She felt the abyss of disenchantment.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
What if the counterculture was only a stumbling beginning, rather than the best that could be hoped for?
Mark FisherRead
Religious doctrines β¦ are all illusions, they do not admit of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them as true or to believe in them.
Sigmund FreudRead