It's in despair that you find the sharpest pleasures, particularly when you are most acutely aware of the hopelessness of your position.
Fyodor DostoevskyIt wasn't the New World that mattered... Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life - the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.
Fyodor DostoevskyTo study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.
Fyodor DostoevskyWhat is most vile and despicable about money is that it even confers talent. And it will do so until the end of the world.
Fyodor DostoevskyTwice two makes four seems to me simply a piece of insolence. Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo barring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.
Fyodor Dostoevsky