Quotogeny

Topic

Quotes about meaning of life

  1. 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)

  2. The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 3, chapter 7 ("Stepan Trofimovitch's Last Wandering"), section 3Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky

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

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

  4. Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyA Writer's DiaryJanuary 1876, chapter 3, section 2 ("Spiritualism. Something about devils. The extraordinary cunning of devils, if only they are devils")

  5. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe IdiotPart 3, chapter 5 ("My Necessary Explanation")Ippolit Terentyev

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyLettersLetter to his brother Mikhail, 16 August 1839Fyodor Dostoevsky, aged seventeen

  10. The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key!

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyNotes from UndergroundPart 1 ("Underground"), chapter 8The Underground Man, the unnamed narrator

  11. It's not God that I don't accept, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 4 ("Rebellion")Ivan Karamazov

  12. The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovPart 2, Book 5, chapter 5 ("The Grand Inquisitor")The Grand Inquisitor, in Ivan's prose poem

  13. 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

  14. Twice two makes four is not life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyNotes from UndergroundPart 1 ("Underground"), chapter 9The Underground Man, the unnamed narrator

  15. Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea.

    GenuineFyodor DostoevskyA Writer's DiaryDecember 1876, chapter 1, section 3 ("Unfounded Assertions")

Circulating, but not genuine

  1. All this struggle for life that just ends on a random day.

    Not found in their worksattributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky