A few days earlier, in front of his guests at his own birthday celebration, this man had started smashing his own crockery and tearing his and his wife's clothes, because he was not offered enough vodka; then he went on to break every stick of furniture in his house and smash all the windows, and he did it all for the "beauty" of the gesture, as Mr. Karamazov had just now. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
About This Quote

Here is an example of the "beauty" associated with the destruction of furniture and crockery. When our beloved Karamazov smashed his own crockery and tore his own clothes, he was expressing his anger at being refused vodka. The fact that he did it for the "beauty" of the gesture shows his great love for vodka. However, he did not express his anger in a way that would have made it easier to drink up all the vodka.

Instead, he destroyed everything in order to get back even more alcohol. It was only when all the vodka was gone that he calmed down and started to enjoy life once again.

Source: The Brothers Karamazov

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Do you think I'm pretty? I think you're beautiful Beautiful? You are so beautiful, it hurts sometimes. - Richelle Mead
  2. As if you were on fire from within. The moon lives in the lining of your skin. - Pablo Neruda
  3. To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the... - Unknown
  4. The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely. - Louisa May Alcott
  5. A fit, healthy body–that is the best fashion statement - Jess C. Scott
More Quotes By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  1. Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having...
  2. What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
  3. The soul is healed by being with children.
  4. I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.
  5. To love someone means to see them as God intended them.
Related Topics