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
Twice two makes four seems to me simply a piece of insolence. Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo barring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that strict adherence to facts can be limiting and that sometimes embracing broader interpretations can be valuable.
Dostoevsky's quote challenges the rigidity of absolute truths, such as the mathematical certainty of 'twice two makes four.' He personifies this certainty as a hindrance to creativity and perspective, acknowledging that while objective truths hold their value, subjective interpretations can enrich our understanding and experiences, as demonstrated by the playful notion that 'twice two makes five' can be charming in its own right.
Themes
TruthPerspectiveCreativitySubjectivityInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical debate, one might use this quote to argue about the nature of truth.
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
I sometimes think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
Franklin D. RooseveltRead
Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are as sand, as dust - or less than dust - in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing.
Carl SaganRead
Problems are the outward signs of unused inner possibilities.
Rollo MayRead
More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other.
Albert CamusRead
Or shall I go out as a light does, not first blown out by the wind, but grown tired and weary of itself - a burnt out light? Or finally, shall I blow myself out, so as not to burn out?
Friedrich NietzscheRead
I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
Thomas PaineRead