Do a man dirt, yourself you hurt.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyCrime and Punishment (1866)
Use itGS4: wrongdoing harms the wrongdoer too; moral reciprocity and karma.
Quotes / Thinkers / Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Thinker · 12 quotes
Fyodor Dostoyevsky quotes for UPSC
12 sourced quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky on character & virtue, truth & wisdom, ethics & morality, integrity & honesty, courage, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyBook II, ch. 4 (trans. Constance Garnett)
Use itGS4: integrity starts with honesty to oneself; constant self-scrutiny against self-deception.
The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyAs quoted in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 299
Use itLife: habits formed in youth define later life; build good routines early.
If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyPart III, Chapter 2 (tr. Constance Garnett, 1915)
Use itLife/GS4: self-respect commands respect from others; dignity in conduct.
All is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice, that's an axiom. It would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of. Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyVariant translation: "Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most."
Use itEssay on innovation and reform: people fear new steps most; cowardice wastes opportunity.
To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyPart 1, Chapter 2 (tr. Frederick Whishaw, 1887)
Use itGS2/GS4 death penalty debate: state execution may be worse than the crime it punishes.
Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyPart 3, Chapter 1 (tr. Constance Garnett, 1913)
Use itEssay on innovation: pioneers are mocked first; encourage tolerance for unconventional ideas.
Faith is not in power but in truth.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
Use itEssay: true conviction rests on truth, not on power; satyameva jayate theme.
It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise!
— Fyodor DostoyevskyPart 4, Chapter 5 (tr. Frederick Whishaw, 1887)
Use itGS4/Life: facing hard truth beats comfortable illusion; use on honest feedback and data.
Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
Use itEssay on reformers: societies resist visionaries in life and revere them after death.
It's the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyThe Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
Use itLife: time softens old grief into quiet tenderness; comfort during loss.
For the mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive but in finding something to live for.
— Fyodor DostoyevskyBook V, ch. 5 (trans. Constance Garnett)
Use itEssay on meaning of life: existence matters only with a purpose to live for.