Notes From Underground

“You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won’t be wiser?” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“What makes a hero? Courage, strength, morality, withstanding adversity? Are these the traits that truly show and create a hero? Is the light truly the source of darkness or vice versa? Is the soul a source of hope or despair? Who are these so called heroes and where do they come from? Are their origins in obscurity or in plain sight?” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Don’t be overwise; fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid - the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights

“One can’t understand everything at once, we can’t begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan’t understand them thoroughly.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“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.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Forgive me for my love -for ruining you with my love.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“I am a fool with a heart but no brains, and you are a fool with brains but no heart; and we’re both unhappy, and we both suffer.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Beauty will save the world.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“The more I love humanity in general the less I love man in particular. In my dreams, I often make plans for the service of humanity, and perhaps I might actually face crucifixion if it were suddenly necessary. Yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone for two days together. I know from experience. As soon as anyone is near me, his personality disturbs me and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I begin to hate the best of men: one because he’s too long over his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps on blowing his nose. I become hostile to people the moment they come close to me. But it has always happened that the more I hate men individually the more I love humanity.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov