Quote

To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible of punishments so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it and dread it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Age: 60 †
Born: 1821
Born: January 1
Died: 1881
Died: January 1
Biographer
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Poet
Short Story Writer
Translator
Writer
Dostoievski
Fyodor Dostoievski
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoievski
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Work
Absolutely
Inflict
Would
Completely
Murderer
Men
Terrible
Irrational
Character
Utterly
Annihilate
Give
Dread
Ferocious
Need
Crush
Punishments
Giving
Punishment
Shudder
Needs
Useless
Beforehand

More quotes by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Image
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. The tiger only tears and gnaws, that's all he can do. He would never think of nailing people by the ears, even if he were able to do it.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
I have in my own life merely carried to the extreme that which you have never ventured to carry even halfway and what's more, you've regarded your cowardice as prudence, and found comfort in deceiving yourselves. So that, in fact, I may be even more alive than you are. Do take a closer look!
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
Hang your merit. I don't seek anyone's approbation.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
I bless the rising sun each day, and, as before, my heart sings to meet it, but now I love even more its setting, its long slanting rays & the soft tender gentle memories that come with them...’ -Father Zossima
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
But people will laugh at all sorts of things.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
He was one of the numerous and varied legion of dullards, of half-animated abortions, conceited, half-educated coxcombs, who attach themselves to the idea most in fashion only to vulgarize it and who caricature every cause they serve, however sincerely.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
Ah, Misha, he has a stormy spirit. His mind is in bondage. He is haunted by a great, unsolved doubt. He is one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their questions.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
Woe to the man who offends a small child!
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
It is a law of nature that every decent man on earth is bound to be a coward and a slave
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
When reason fails, the devil helps!
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
I could not become anything neither good nor bad neither a scoundrel nor an honest man neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
Because I'm a Karamazov. Because when I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I'm even pleased that I'm falling in just such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Image
What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky