Quotogeny

Quotes / Fyodor Dostoevsky / The Idiot

Beauty will save the world.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, spoken by Ippolit Terentyev

Genuine Found word for word in the work, in the original and in a public-domain translation.Draft entry, not yet reviewed

Original
Правда, князь, что вы раз говорили, что мир спасет "красота"? Господа, -- закричал он громко всем, -- князь утверждает, что мир спасет красота!
Translated by Constance Garnett (1913)
Is it true, prince, that you said once that ‘beauty’ would save the world? Gentlemen!” he shouted loudly, addressing the whole company, “the prince asserts that beauty will save the world!
Work
The Idiot, 1869
Where
Part 3, chapter 5
Speaker
Ippolit Terentyev
To
Prince Myshkin, in front of the guests at his birthday party

The scene

Ippolit, a consumptive eighteen-year-old who expects to die within weeks, needles Myshkin at the prince's birthday gathering, shortly before reading out his 'Necessary Explanation' and trying to shoot himself. He reports the line as something Myshkin once said; Myshkin never says it on the page. Earlier Aglaya mocks the same idea, warning Myshkin not to talk about 'the world will be saved by beauty' at her parents' party.

Read it in the text

ЧАСТЬ ТРЕТЬЯ · V

-- А... только! Стало быть, я...

И он глубоко и жадно перевел дух, как бы сбросив с себя чрезвычайную тягость. Он догадался наконец, что ничего "не кончено", что еще не рассвело, что гости встали из-за стола только для закуски и что кончилась всего одна только болтовня Лебедева. Он улыбнулся, и чахоточный румянец, в виде двух ярких пятен, заиграл на щеках его.

-- А вы уж. и минуты считали, пока я спал, Евгений Павлыч, -- подхватил он насмешливо, -- вы целый вечер от меня не отрывались, я видел... А! Рогожин! Я видел его сейчас во сне, -- прошептал он князю, нахмурившись и кивая на сидевшего у стола Рогожина, -- ах, да, -- перескочил он вдруг опять, -- где же оратор, где ж Лебедев? Лебедев, стало быть, кончил? О чем он говорил? Правда, князь, что вы раз говорили, что мир спасет "красота"?

-- Господа, -- закричал он громко всем, -- князь утверждает, что мир спасет красота! А я утверждаю, что у него оттого такие игривые мысли, что он теперь влюблен. Господа, князь влюблен; давеча, только что он вошел, я в этом убедился. Не краснейте, князь, мне вас жалко станет. Какая красота спасет мир! Мне это Коля пересказал... Вы ревностный христианин? Коля говорит, вы сами себя называете христианином.

Князь рассматривал его внимательно и не ответил ему.

PART III · CHAPTER V · Constance Garnett

“Ah... That’s all! Then I... .”

And he drew a deep, eager breath, as though casting off some heavy weight. He realised at last that nothing “was over,” that it was not yet daybreak, that the guests had got up from the table only on account of supper, and that Lebedyev’s chatter was the only thing that was over. He smiled and a hectic flush came out in two bright spots on his cheeks.

“And you’ve been counting the minutes while I was asleep, Yevgeny Pavlovitch,” he commented, ironically. “You couldn’t tear yourself away from me all the evening, I’ve seen that. Ah! Rogozhin! I was dreaming about him just now,” he whispered to Myshkin, frowning, and nodding towards Rogozhin, who was sitting at the table. “Ah! yes!” he flew off to another subject, “where’s the orator? Where’s Lebedyev? Has he finished then? What was he talking about? Is it true, prince, that you said once that ‘beauty’ would save the world? Gentlemen!” he shouted loudly, addressing the whole company, “the prince asserts that beauty will save the world! But I assert that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love; I was certain of it when he came in just now. Don’t blush, prince, it makes me sorry for you. What sort of beauty will save the world? Kolya told me. ... Are you a zealous Christian? Kolya says that you say you're a Christian yourself.”

Myshkin looked at him attentively and made no answer.

“You don’t answer? Perhaps you think I’m very fond of you?” Ippolit added suddenly, abruptly.

What it says

Beauty, in the sense of a moral and spiritual ideal (for Myshkin, the beauty of Christ), is what will redeem humanity.

How it is misread

Usually quoted as Dostoevsky's own confident claim about art or aesthetics. In the novel it is a sick young man's mocking report of Myshkin's belief, and Myshkin, the 'positively beautiful man', ends the book destroyed. The novel leaves open whether beauty saves anything.

Forms in circulation

  • condensedBeauty will save the world. The everyday form: the question and the mockery dropped, so it reads as Dostoevsky's own statement.
  • condensedКрасота спасёт мир. The proverbial Russian form, with the word order turned round: in the novel it is «мир спасет красота».
  • translationIs it true, prince, that you once declared that ‘beauty would save the world’? Great Heaven! The prince says that beauty saves the world! Martin's 'Great Heaven! The prince says that beauty saves the world!' is freer than Garnett and adds an exclamation that is not in the Russian. (Eva Martin's translation, 1915 (Project Gutenberg #2638))

Descent

  • Draws onFriedrich Schiller, 1795The letters On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795) argue that it is through beauty that one makes one's way to freedom; Dostoevsky read Schiller from his youth.
  • Taken up byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1970Builds his Nobel Lecture on the phrase, asking whether it was 'a careless phrase' or a prophecy, and answers that the trinity of truth, goodness and beauty may yet save the world. source

Tags

TopicsBeautyHumanity
SuitsClassroom
Scalesdespairing joyfulcalm feverishplain demandingneeds context stands alonegrave wittydated modern

What it is made of

ThemeBeautyChristMeaning & purpose
ClaimProphecy & warningProfession of faith
FigurePlain statementPersonification
VoiceReportedRebel & doubterIn dialogueMan in general
StanceLeft openIronicIn extremity
ToneHopefulSardonic
ShapeOne lineShifts out of contextStands alone
UseEpigraphTeaching & discussionArgument & debate

Nearby

Checked against

Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.