Fyodor Dostoevsky

To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men of action, for example, must, I believe, have great sadness on earth.

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

The soul is healed by being with children.

Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him.

The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them—the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.

If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect, will you compel others to respect you.

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

The best way to keep a man from doing something is to tell him he can't do it.

Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

The greatest punishment for a man is to know that he has done wrong, but to be unable to atone for it.

To love is to suffer and there can be no love without suffering.

The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.

It is not the quantity of knowledge but the quality of knowledge that determines the future of humanity.

Man is bound to worship something. If he cannot worship God, he will worship an idol.

The world will be saved by beauty.