Quotes about emotions

My God, a whole moment of happiness! Is that too little for the whole of a man's life?

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyWhite Nights"Morning" (the last section)

Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! … God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 1, Book 3, chapter 3 ("The Confession of a Passionate Heart—in Verse")Dmitri Karamazov

Compassion is the chief and perhaps the only law of human existence.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe IdiotPart 2, chapter 5Prince Myshkin, in thought

Some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovEpilogue, chapter 3 ("Ilusha's Funeral. The Speech at the Stone")Alyosha Karamazov

What if I were not to die! What if I could go back to life — what eternity! I would turn every minute into an age; I would lose nothing, I would count every minute as it passed.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe IdiotPart 1, chapter 5Prince Myshkin, retelling what a man reprieved on the scaffold told him

Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyLettersLetter to his brother Mikhail, 22 December 1849Fyodor Dostoevsky, aged twenty-eight

Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (g) ("Of Prayer, of Love, and of Contact with other Worlds")Father Zosima

The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 1, Book 2, chapter 4 ("A Lady of Little Faith")An unnamed elderly doctor, as reported by Father Zosima

Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 1, Book 2, chapter 4 ("A Lady of Little Faith")Father Zosima

Love life more than the meaning of it.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 3 ("The Brothers Make Friends")Alyosha Karamazov, answering Ivan's question

The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the great thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Dream of a Ridiculous ManChapter 5The ridiculous man

To love people as they are is impossible. And yet one must.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe AdolescentPart 2, chapter 1, section 4Andrei Petrovich Versilov

Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyNotes from UndergroundPart 2 ("À Propos of the Wet Snow"), chapter 6The Underground Man, the unnamed narrator

Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. It's only that.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 2, chapter 1 ("Night"), section 5Kirillov

People, love one another — who said that? Whose commandment is that?

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Meek OneChapter 2, section 4 ("Only Five Minutes Too Late")The pawnbroker, the story's narrator

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentPart 3, chapter 5Rodion Raskolnikov

The soul is healed by being with children.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe IdiotPart 1, chapter 6Prince Myshkin

Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 3 ("The Brothers Make Friends")Ivan Karamazov

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 6, chapter 3 ("Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zossima"), section (i) ("Of Hell and Hell Fire, a Mystic Reflection")Father Zosima