Quotes · verified word for word in the text
The Brothers Karamazov quotes
17 quotes from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Source: Project Gutenberg e-text #28054 (public domain in the USA), the text this site’s reader shows. Each quote is copied exactly from that text and links to its passage in the reader; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against the reader’s text.
I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.
— Spoken by a character · IV. A Lady Of Little Faith
Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child’s prayer to ‘dear, kind God’!
— Spoken by a character · IV. Rebellion
‘without God and immortal life? All things are lawful then, they can do what they like?’
— Spoken by a character · IV. A Hymn And A Secret
And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible.
— Spoken by a character · IV. Rebellion
It’s not God that I don’t accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.
— Spoken by a character · IV. Rebellion
I have a longing for life, and I go on living in spite of logic.
— Ivan · III. The Brothers Make Friends
The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.
If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground.
— Spoken by a character · IV. A Hymn And A Secret
No, not about Diderot. Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.
— Spoken by a character · II. The Old Buffoon
For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.
Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.
— Spoken by a character · IV. A Lady Of Little Faith
There is only one means of salvation, then take yourself and make yourself responsible for all men’s sins, that is the truth, you know, friends, for as soon as you sincerely make yourself responsible for everything and for all men, you will see at once that it is really so, and that you are to blame for every one and for all things.
‘I exist.’ In thousands of agonies—I exist. I’m tormented on the rack—but I exist! Though I sit alone on a pillar—I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.
— Spoken by a character · IV. A Hymn And A Secret
Young man, be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.
This is my last message to you: in sorrow seek happiness. Work, work unceasingly.
— Spoken by a character · VII. A Young Man Bent On A Career
The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one.
— Spoken by a character · II. The Old Buffoon