Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare.

Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. –The Grand Inquisitor

This is my last message to you: in sorrow, seek happiness.

It's a burden to us even to be human beings-men with our own real body and blood; we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalized man.

The consciousness of life is higher than life.

Thus, as a result of heightened consciousness, a man feels as if it's all right if he's bad as long as he knows it- as though that were any consolation.

Russians alone are able to combine so many opposites in themselves at one and the same time.