Quotes from Notes from Underground & The Double

“To think too much is a disease.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“We have all lost touch with life, we all limp, each to a greater or lesser degree.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Twice two is four is not life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Bunlar ülküleri uğruna kıllarını bile kıpırdatmazlar, azılı birer haydut, birer hırsızdırlar, ama ilk ülkülerine olan saygılarını taş çatlasa yitirmezler; ruhça son derece namusludurlar. Evet, efendim, en bayağı, en aşağılık insanların aynı zamanda namussuzluk simgesi kişiler olarak kalabilmeleri ancak bizde olanaklıdır. Yineliyorum, bizim romantikler arasında isini bilen madrabazlar (madrabaz sözcüğünü iltifat olsun diye kullanıyorum) öylesine çok çıkıyor ve bunlar öyle bir gerçekçilik sezgisi, öyle bir beceriklilik gösteriyorlar ki, şeflerinin de, arkadaşlarının da ağzı bir karış açık kalıyor.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I could have forgiven him for striking me, but I couldn't forgive that moving me from place to place without even seeing me.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“However what can a decent, respectable man talk about with the greatest pleasure?
Answer:himself.
Well, so I too will talk about myself.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Siz, sıkılmak nedir bilmez bir sırça köşke, yani gizliden gizliye de olsa dilinizi çıkaramayacağınız, nanik yapamayacağınız bir sırça köşke inanmışsınız.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I say, let the world perish, if I can always drink my tea.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Şurada ciddi konular üstünde kafa patlatıp duruyoruz, ama siz benim
sözlerime kulak asmazsanız, öyle olsun, yalvarmaya hiç niyetim yok. Benim yeraltım bana yeter.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Genel olarak biz Ruslarda; Almanların, özellikle Fransızların başı yıldızlara eren akılsız romantiklerini bulamazsınız. Yer yerinden oynasa, bütün Fransa barikatlarda can verse gene de bir yararı olmaz; Fransız, nezaket için olsun istifini bozmadan, ömrünün sonuna dek, aptalcasına, yıldızların şarkısını söylemeyi sürdürür. Biz Rusların yurdunda böyle aptalların bulunmadığını biliyoruz, bizleri Almanlardan ayıran da budur zaten. İşte bu yüzdendir ki, bizde yüzde yüz saf, bası yıldızlarda gezen yaratıklar aranmamalıdır. Akıllarını Kostancoğlularıyla, Pyotr İvanoviç Amcalarla bozarak, onlarda ülkümüzü aramak ahmaklığını gösteren çağımızın birtakım "işgüzar" yazarlarıyla eleştirmenlerdir ki, bizim romantiklerimizi Almanların, Fransızların bası göğe eren romantikleriyle bir tutmaya kalkışmışlardır. Oysa, bizim romantiklerimizin özellikleri Avrupa'nın bası gökte gezen romantiklerinin özellikleriyle taban tabana karşıttır, hiçbir Avrupa ölçüsü bizimkilere uygulanamaz.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Although I committed this cruelty deliberately, it came from my wicked head, not from my heart. It was so artificial, so intellectual, so contrived, so bookish.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Which is better a cheap happiness or lofty suffering? Tell me then, which is better?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“This pleasure came precisely from being too clearly aware of your own degradation; from the feeling of having gone to the uttermost limits; that it is was vile, bit it could not have been otherwise; that you could not escape, you could never make yourself into a different person”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I couldn't even conceive of playing a secondary part...Either a hero, or dirt, there was nothing in between. That was my undoing”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“This pleasure came precisely from being too clearly aware of your own degradation; from the feeling of having gone to the uttermost limits; that it is was vile, but it could not have been otherwise; that you could not escape, you could never make yourself into a different person”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Even then I already carried the underground in my soul.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“The pleasure came precisely from being too clearly aware of your own degradation; from the feeling of having gone to the uttermost limits; that it is was vile, but it could not have been otherwise; that you could not escape, you could never make yourself into a different person”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I am to blame because, first of all, I am cleverer than anybody else around me.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Those people, for example, who can avenge their wrongs and generally stand up for themselves – how do they do it?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“But all these are golden daydreams.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I am a sick man....I am an angry man. I am an unattractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Do you ask why I tortured and tormented myself? The answer is that it was too boring to sit and do nothing, and so I indulged my fancy.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I invented a life, so that I should at any rate live.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“hate, or love, anything rather than do nothing.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“I agree that two and two make four is an excellent thing; but to give everything its due, two and two make five is also a very fine thing.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

“Leave us alone without books and we shall be lost and in confusion at once. We shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from Notes from Underground & The Double

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― Thomas Bernhard, quote from Wittgenstein's Nephew

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.