Quotes from The Grand Inquisitor

“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“Without a clear perception of his reasons for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with bread".”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“Peacefully they will die, peacefully they will expire in Thy name, and beyond the grave they will find nothing but death. But we shall keep the secret, and for their happiness we shall allure them with the reward of heaven and eternity.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“In place of the clear and rigid ancient law, You [oh Lord] made man decide about good and evil for himself, with no other guidance than Your example. But did it never occur to You that man would disregard Your example, even question it, as well as Your truth, when he was subjected to so fearful a burden as freedom of choice?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“That day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born wicked and rebellious.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“But the foolish children will have to learn some day that, rebels though they be and riotous from nature, they are too weak to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any length of time.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe in, and consent to bow down to in a mass.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

“It is that instinctive need of having a worship in common that is the chief suffering of every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of times. It is for that universality of religious worship that people destroyed each other by sword.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Grand Inquisitor

About the author

Popular quotes

“«Tu non credi che certe persone dimostrino più coraggio di altre, che siano più valorose e tutto il resto?»
«Tu sì?»
«Be, sì, io penso di sì. Quando leggi di quello che alcuni uomini hanno fatto in questa battaglia, per esempio. Non solo combattendo, ma salvando la vita di altri soldati a rischio della propria. Sono stati capaci di cose che altri non avrebbero mai osato.»
«E che cosa hanno fatto quando sono tornati a casa?»
«Eh?»
«Cosa hanno fatto a casa loro? Come trattavano le loro mogli o le innamorate? Come si comportavano coi colleghi di lavoro?»
[...]
«... lo sai dove voglio arrivare. Non è che io non creda al coraggio o al valore o a cose del genere. Solo che credo che la maggior parte delle persone sia coraggiosa e valorosa ma in modi diversi e in diverse... come si dice? gelegenheden... occasioni.»”
― Aidan Chambers, quote from Postcards from No Man's Land

“ - Ah,temos um mas. Você devia ter sido critica literaria. Eles atiram-nos flores e depois dão-nos um pontapé nos tomates." pag.130”
― Sandra Brown, quote from Charade

“It was like watching two unicorns fucking," he told her. "All glitter and jizz.”
― Erin McCarthy, quote from True

“I shall remain vigilant and unyielding in my pursuit of the enemies of the Coalition.
I will defend and maintain the Order of Life as it was proclaim by the Allfathers of the Coalition in the Octus Canon.
I will forsake the life I had before so I may perform my duty as long as I am needed.
Steadfast, I shall hold my place in the machine and acknowledge my place in the Coalition.
I am a Gear. ”
― Karen Traviss, quote from Aspho Fields

“Ne kažnjavamo mi druge zato što su zli, već zato što prave pogrešan izbor, izbor pogrešan za čopor. Moral nije ništa bogom dano ili večno, već samo skup pravila nužan za dobrobir čopora.”
― Jo Nesbø, quote from The Son

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

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.