#dostoyevsky

You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there's no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses. And although our life, in this manifestation of it, is often worthless, yet it is life and not simply extracting square roots. Here I, for instance, quite naturally want to live, in order to satisfy all my capacities for life, and not simply my capacity for reasoning, that is, not simply one twentieth of my capacity for life. What does reason know? Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning (some things, perhaps, it will never learn; this is a poor comfort, but why not say so frankly?) and human nature acts as a whole, with everything that is in it, consciously or unconsciously, and, even if it goes wrong, it lives. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#choice #fyodor-dostoyevsky #life #notes-from-the-underground #reason

Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave. That is his normal condition. Of that I am firmly persuaded. He is made and constructed to that very end. And not only at the present time owing to some casual circumstance, but always, at all times, a decent man is bound to be a coward and a slave. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#fyodor-dostoyevsky #notes-from-the-underground #slave #age

Hang your merit. I don't seek anyone's approbation. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#approval #black-humor #disapproval #dishonesty #funny

Por que ele... Não será você? Por que não é como você? Ele vale menos, e, entretanto, gosto mais dele do que de você. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#love #white-nights #why #love

My God, but what do I care about the laws of nature and arithmetic if for some reason these laws and two times two is four are not to my liking? To be sure, I won't break through such a wall with my forehead if I really have not got strength to do it, but neither will I be reconciled with it simply because I have a stone wall here and have not got strength enough. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#notes-from-underground #nature

Precious memories may remain even of a bad home, if only the hearth knows how to find what is precious ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#karamazov-bothers #home

I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness - a real thorough-going illness. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#disease #fyodor-dostoyevsky #illness #intellect #notes-from-the-underground