The Brothers Karamazov

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

to my thinking, miracles are never a stumbling-block to the realist.

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.

active love is labour and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.

‘Father,’ he asked, ‘are the rich people stronger than any one else on earth?’ ‘Yes, Ilusha,’ I said, ‘there are no people on earth stronger than the rich.’

I love some great deeds done by men, though I’ve long ceased perhaps to have faith in them,

if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price.

For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory,

People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.