Quotes from The Adolescent

“Some sleepers have intelligent faces even in sleep, while other faces, even intelligent ones, become very stupid in sleep and therefore ridiculous. I don't know what makes that happen; I only want to say that a laughing man, like a sleeping one, most often knows nothing about his face. A great many people don't know how to laugh at all. However, there's nothing to know here: it's a gift, and it can't be fabricated. It can only be fabricated by re-educating oneself, developing oneself for the better, and overcoming the bad instincts of one's character; then the laughter of such a person might quite possibly change for the better. A man can give himself away completely by his laughter, so that you suddenly learn all of his innermost secrets. Even indisputably intelligent laughter is sometimes repulsive. Laughter calls first of all for sincerity, and where does one find sincerity? Laughter calls for lack of spite, but people most often laugh spitefully. Sincere and unspiteful laughter is mirth. A man's mirth is a feature that gives away the whole man, from head to foot. Someone's character won't be cracked for a long time, then the man bursts out laughing somehow quite sincerely, and his whole character suddenly opens up as if on the flat of your hand. Only a man of the loftiest and happiest development knows how to be mirthful infectiously, that is, irresistibly and goodheartedly. I'm not speaking of his mental development, but of his character, of the whole man. And so, if you want to discern a man and know his soul, you must look, not at how he keeps silent, or how he speaks, or how he weeps, or even how he is stirred by the noblest ideas, but you had better look at him when he laughs. If a man has a good laugh, it means he's a good man. Note at the same time all the nuances: for instance, a man's laughter must in no case seem stupid to you, however merry and simplehearted it may be. The moment you notice the slightest trace of stupidity in someone's laughter, it undoubtedly means that the man is of limited intelligence, though he may do nothing but pour out ideas. Or if his laughter isn't stupid, but the man himself, when he laughs, for some reason suddenly seems ridiculous to you, even just slightly—know, then, that the man has no real sense of dignity, not fully in any case. Or finally, if his laughter is infectious, but for some reason still seems banal to you, know, then, that the man's nature is on the banal side as well, and all the noble and lofty that you noticed in him before is either deliberately affected or unconsciously borrowed, and later on the man is certain to change for the worse, to take up what's 'useful' and throw his noble ideas away without regret, as the errors and infatuations of youth.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“How does it come about that what an intelligent man expresses is much stupider than what remains inside him?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“If I had a reader and he had read all I have written so far of my adventures, there would be certainly no need to inform him that I am not created for any sort of society. The trouble is I don't know how to behave in company. If I go anywhere among a great many people I always have a feeling as though I were being electrified by so many eyes looking at me. It positively makes me shrivel up, physically shrivel up, even in such places as the theatre, to say nothing of private houses. I did not know how to behave with dignity in these gambling saloons and assemblies; I either was still, inwardly upbraiding myself for my excessive mildness and politeness, or I suddenly got up and did something rude. And meanwhile all sorts of worthless fellows far inferior to me knew how to behave with wonderful aplomb-- and that's what really exasperated me above everything, so that I lost my self-possession more and more. I may say frankly, even at that time, if the truth is to be told, the society there, and even winning money at cards, had become revolting and a torture to me. Positively a torture. I did, of course, derive acute enjoyment from it, but this enjoyment was at the cost of torture.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Silence is always beautiful, and a silent person is always more beautiful than one who talks.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“A fool is always pleased with what he says, and, besides, he always says more than he needs to.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“To love people as they are is impossible. And yet one must. And therefore do good to them, clenching your feelings, holding your nose, and shutting your eyes (this last is necessary). Endure evil from them, not getting angry with them if possible, ‘remembering that you, too, are a human being’.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Never mind a little dirt, if the goal is splendid!”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I was especially happy when, going to bed and covering myself with a blanket, I began, alone now, in the most complete solitude, with no people moving around and not a single sound from them, to re-create life in a different key.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“كثير من البشر يتحول الاستدلال المنطقي عندهم أحيانا إلى عاطفة قوية تستولي على وجودهم كله، فيصعب جدا طردها أو تعديلها. فلكي نشفي إنسانا أصيب بهذا الداء يجب علينا أن نغير هذه العاطفة، و هذا لا يكون ممكنا إلا بأن نحل محل هذه العاطفة قوة أخرى تساويها”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“How can you tell a man there’s nothing to do? I can’t imagine a situation in which there could ever be nothing to do! Do it for mankind and don’t worry about the rest. There’s so much to do that a lifetime won’t be enough, if you look around attentively.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“What if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey
city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Is it not I myself who am to blame, instead of them?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“إن الأفكار المسطحة السريعة يفهمها الناس بسرعة خارقة، ولا سيما الجمهور، الشارع. وأكثر من ذلك أنها تعد أعظم الأفكار وأكثرها عبقرية، ولكنها لا تعد كذلك إلا في يوم ظهورها. فما هو رخيص الثمن لا يدوم طويلا

إن الفهم السريع دليل على ابتذال الشيء الذي يجب فهمه”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“ثم إن النساء لا يملكن بصيرة نافذة في تقدير شخص يعجبهن، حتى لقد يرين بسرور في المتناقضات آراء سديدة، متى جاءت تلك المتناقضات مطابقة لرغباتهن”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Sincere and unspiteful laughter is mirth, but where is there any mirth in our time, and do people know how to be mirthful?... A man's mirth is a feature that gives away the whole man, from head to foot. Someone's character won't be cracked for a long time then the man bursts out laughing somehow quite sincerely, and his whole character suddenly opens up as if on the flat of your hand. Only a man of the loftiest and happiest development knows how to be mirthful infectiously, that is, irresistibly and goodheartedly. I'm not speaking of his mental development, but of his character, of the whole man. And so, if you want to discern a man and know his soul, you must look, not at how he keeps silent, or how he speaks, or how we weeps, or even how he is stirred by the noblest ideas, but you had better look at him when he laughs. If a man has a good laugh, it means he's a good man.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“You have to be all too basely in love with yourself to write about yourself without shame.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I never found anything in the company of people, however I tried, and I did try; at least all my peers, all my comrades to a man, proved to be inferior to me in thinking; I don't remember a single exception.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I don't know whether the spider perhaps does not hate the fly he has marked and is snaring. Dear little fly! It seems to me that the victim is loved, or at least may be loved. Here I love my enemy. I am delighted, for instance, that she is so beautiful. I am delighted, madam, that you are so haughty and majestic. If you were meeker it would not be so delightful. You have spat on me -- and I am triumphant. If you were literally to spit in my face I should really not be angry because you -- are my victim; mine and not his. How fascinating was that idea! Yes, the secret consciousness of power is more insupportably delightful than open domination. If I were a millionaire I believe I should take pleasure in going about in the oldest clothes and being taken for a destitute man, almost a beggar, being jostled and despised. The consciousness of the truth would be enough for me.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Yes, I'm glum, I'm continually closed. I often want to leave society. I may also do good to people, but often I don't see the slightest reason for doing good to them. And people are not at all so beautiful that they should be cared for so much. Why don’t they come forward directly and openly, and why is it so necessary that I should go and foist myself on them? That’s what I asked myself.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Căci o astfel de dragoste pătimașă, sălbatică, e ca o criză de nebunie, ca un ștreang în jurul gâtului, ca o boală, dar de îndată ce e satisfăcută, vălul de pe ochii omului se destramă și în sufletul lui se naște sentimentul opus: ură și scârbă, dorința de a distruge, de a călca în picioare idolul de până atunci.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“It is curious that this man who, even in my childhood, made such an impression upon me, who had such a crucial influence on the whole bent of my mind, and who perhaps has even cast his shadow over the whole of my future, still remains, even now, a complete enigma to me in many respects.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I passed by your lodging just now, and thought: 'I'll go in to him; he is kinder than any of them, and he was there at the time.' Forgive a poor creature who's no use to anyone; i'll go away directly; I'm going....”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Not everything can be told in words, certain things it's better never to tell.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“To love one's neighbor and not to despise him is impossible.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“فلما صدق توقعي ابتسمت... لأن المرء يبتسم دائما حين يصدق توقعه”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“لقد عرفت واحدا من هؤلاء الذين لا يكفون عن العمل، ولم يكن من أبناء الشعب على كل حال، وكان رجلا مثقفا يقدر على فهم الظواهر العامة. إنه كان يحلم بالفراغ الكامل والبطالة التامة كل يوم تقريبا، ويجد في هذا الحلم لذة عظيمة ومتعة كبيرة. حتى لقد كان يمضي بهذا المثل الأعلى إلى تخوم المطلق إن صح التعبير، إلى الاستقلال الذي لا حدود له، إلى الحرية المستمرة في الانقياد للحلم والتأمل خاليا من كل عمل

وقد لازمه هذا إلى اليوم الذي تحطم فيه تحطما من العمل، حتى صار يستحيل "تصليحه"، ومات في المستشفى. فاستخلصتُ من ذلك أن فكرة مباهج العمل إنما اخترعها أناس عاطلون عن العمل، أناس فضلاء طبعا”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I speak as a judge and I know that I was guilty. Even in the whirl in which I was caught up, and though I was alone without a guide or counsellor, I was, I swear, conscious of my downfall, and so there's no excuse for me. And yet, for those two months I was almost happy -- why, almost? I was quite happy! And so happy -- would it be believed -- that the consciousness of my degradation, of which I had glimpses at moments (frequent moments!) and which made me shudder in my inmost soul, only intoxicated me more. "What do I care if I'm fallen! And i won't fall, I'll get out of it! I have a lucky star!" I was crossing a precipice on a thin plank without a rail, and I was pleased at my position, and even peeped into the abyss. It was risky and it was delightful. And "my idea"? My "idea" later, the idea would wait. Everything that happened was simply "a temporary deviation." "Why not enjoy oneself?" That's what was amiss with my idea. I repeat, it admitted of all sorts of deviations; if it had not been so firm and fundamental I might have been afraid of deviating.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“I've already warned you that the simplest ideas are the hardest to understand; I'll now add that they are also the hardest to explain.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

“Quick understanding is only a sign of the banality of what is understood.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Adolescent

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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.

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