“I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Personal correspondence (1839), as quoted in Dostoevsky: His Life and Work (1971) by Konstantin Mochulski, as translated by Michael A. Minihan, p. 17
Context: To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man." by Fyodor Dostoyevsky?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

Fyodor Dostoyevsky155

Russian author 1821–1881

Related quotes

“To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) Russian author

Personal correspondence (1839), as quoted in Dostoevsky: His Life and Work (1971) by Konstantin Mochulski, as translated by Michael A. Minihan, p. 17
General

“There is mystery here, but a soft, sure mystery that is understood and only remains a mystery because I want it so.”

Clifford D. Simak book Time and Again

Source: Time and Again (1951), Chapter I (p. 6)
Context: There is mystery here, but a soft, sure mystery that is understood and only remains a mystery because I want it so. The mystery of the nighthawk against a darkening sky, the puzzle of the firefly along the lilac hedge.

“For tribal man, space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1950s, The Mechanical Bride (1951), p. 85; "Magic that Changes Mood")

“I'm going to make myself seem more mysterious because I'm really not so mysterious. Or, if I am, it's because everybody is a mystery. Now that I'm older, at least I can be more amused by what people said.”

Nastassja Kinski (1961) German actress

Movieline, April 1997

“If at times I have thought myself unfortunate, it is because of a confusion, an error. I have mistaken myself for someone else… Who am I really? I am the author of The World as Will and Representation, I am the one who has given an answer to the mystery of Being that will occupy the thinkers of future centuries. That is what I am, and who can dispute it in the years of life that still remain for me?”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

From The Total Library by Jorge Luis Borges, 1999
Other

“I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.”

Sun Ra (1914–1993) American jazz composer and bandleader

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988) http://www.plonsey.com/beanbenders/SUNRA-interview.html

“She closed her eyes. "I didn't know that. i didn't know anything. It scares me the things I told myself. But I would have told myself almost anything, because I wanted to believe him."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to be with you.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

“You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don't want to be like "As Confucius say," but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family. It just so happens man that people are different.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview (1971)

“I layer myself in dirt because I want to be a child; I want to scream. Sometimes I'm unhappy with myself, so I want to look aesthetically unpleasing. At the end of tours I feel completely beaten and destroyed. I kick and scream and destroy myself. I cut myself—my legs are cut to shreds—and my chest. I get up and I shout. I truly feel it's like a purge.”

KatieJane Garside (1968) English singer

On her appearance during live performances, The Guardian https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22821252/the_guardian/ (1992)

“America is now wholly given over to a d—d mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash — and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed. What is the mystery of these innumerable editions of the Lamplighter, and other books neither better nor worse?”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

worse they could not be, and better they need not be, when they sell by 100,000.
Letter to William D. Ticknor (9 January 1855)

Related topics