“If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be immoral, everything would be lawful, even cannibalism.”

Book II, ch. 6 (trans. Constance Garnett)
Pyotr Miusov, summarizing an argument made by Ivan at a social gathering
The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 12, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life …" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky 155
Russian author 1821–1881

Related quotes

Abbie Hoffman photo

“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”

Abbie Hoffman (1936–1989) American political and social activist

Source: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 187.

Izumi Shikibu photo

“Even if I now saw you only once, I would long for you through worlds, worlds, worlds.”

Izumi Shikibu (976–1033) Japanese poet

Source: The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan

Lewis Carroll photo

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Helen Keller photo
Dan Brown photo
Richard Dawkins photo

“Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.”

Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) American poet

"Root Cellar," ll. 10-11
The Lost Son and Other Poems (1948)

Alan Watts photo
Albert Jay Nock photo

Related topics