Quotes about reason

To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentPart 3, chapter 1Dmitri Razumikhin

It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentPart 3, chapter 3Rodion Raskolnikov

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 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

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

To be too conscious is an illness — a real thorough-going illness.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyNotes from UndergroundPart 1 ("Underground"), chapter 2The Underground Man, the unnamed narrator

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

Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrive at unlimited despotism.

GenuineFyodor DostoevskyDemonsPart 2, chapter 7 ("A Meeting"), section 2Shigalyov (Shigalov in Garnett), a gloomy theorist in Pyotr Verkhovensky's circle