“So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.”

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book V, Ch. 5

About Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821 – 1881

Russian novelist, author of 'Crime and Punishment' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'.

“A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream?”

“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”

“If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”