"I am a wicked man... But do..." - Quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I am a wicked man... But do you know, gentlemen, what was the main point about my wickedness? The whole thing, precisely was, the greatest nastiness precisely lay in my being shamefully conscious every moment, even in moments of the greatest bile, that I was not only not a wicked man but was not even an embittered man, that I was simply frightening sparrows in vain, and pleasing myself with it.
More by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“The world stands on absurdities, and without them perhaps nothing at all would happen.”
“The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted - you will find out at once how to arrange it all.”
“Beggars, especially noble beggars, should never show themselves in the street; they should ask for alms through the newspapers. It's still possible to love one's neighbor abstractly, and even occasionally from a distance, but hardly ever up close.”
More on Self Deception
“....honest men are few when it comes to themselves.”
“We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves.”
“when we badly want a thing, we go to hunting for good and righteous reasons for it; we give it that fine name to comfort our consciences, whereas we privately know we are only hunting for plausible ones.”
More on Human Nature
“I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.”
“We conceal it from ourselves in vain - we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.”
“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”