Quotes from book
The Idiot

The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky Original title Идіотъ (Russian, 1869)

The Idiot is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1868–69.


Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“It wasn't the New World that mattered … Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all.”

The Idiot (1868–9)
Context: It wasn't the New World that mattered … Columbus died almost without seeing it; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all. But what's the use of talking! I suspect that all I'm saying now is so like the usual commonplaces that I shall certainly be taken for a lower-form schoolboy sending in his essay on "sunrise", or they'll say perhaps that I had something to say, but that I did not know how to "explain" it. But I'll add, that there is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas. But if I too have failed to convey all that has been tormenting me for the last six months, it will, anyway, be understood that I have paid very dearly for attaining my present "last conviction." This is what I felt necessary, for certain objects of my own, to put forward in my "Explanation". However, I will continue.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well.”

The Idiot (1868–9)
Context: Nor is there any embarrassment in the fact that we're ridiculous, isn't it true? For it's actually so, we are ridiculous, light-minded, with bad habits, we're bored, we don't know how to look, how to understand, we're all like that, all, you, and I, and they! Now, you're not offended when I tell you to your face that you're ridiculous? And if so, aren't you material? You know, in my opinion it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous, if not better: we can the sooner forgive each other, the sooner humble ourselves; we can't understand everything at once, we cant start right out with perfection! To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. This I tell you, you, who have already been able to understand... and not understand … so much. I'm not afraid for you now;

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“The prince says that the world will be saved by beauty! And I maintain that the reason he has such playful ideas is that he is in love.”

...князь утверждает, что мир спасет красота! А я утверждаю, что у него оттого такие игривые мысли, что он теперь влюблен.
The Idiot (1868–9)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“I have never in my life met a man like him for noble simplicity, and boundless truthfulness.”

The Idiot (1868–9)
Context: I have never in my life met a man like him for noble simplicity, and boundless truthfulness. I understood from the way he talked that anyone who chose could deceive him, and that he would forgive anyone afterwards who had deceived him, and that was why I grew to love him.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“Humiliate the reason and distort the soul…”

The Idiot (1868–9)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“Pass by us, and forgive us our happiness.”

The Idiot (1868–9)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“It's easier for a Russian to become an atheist than for anyone else in the world.”

Part 4, Chapter 7 http://books.google.com/books?id=WuAKAQAAMAAJ&q="It's+easier+for+a+Russian+to+become+an+atheist+than+for+anyone+else+in+the+world"&pg=PA548#v=onepage
The Idiot (1868–9)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“First of all, this prince is an idiot, and, secondly, he is a fool--knows nothing of the world, and has no place in it.”

The Idiot, Part IV., Chapter V.
General, The Idiot (1868–9)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

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