1
Don't be surprised that I value prejudice, observe certain conventions, seek power--it's because I know I live in an empty society.Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2
She enjoyed her own pain by this egoism of suffering, if I may so express it. This aggravation of suffering and this rebelling in it I could understand; it is the enjoyment of man, of the insulted and injured, oppressed by destiny, and smarting under the sense of its injustice.Fyodor Dostoyevsky
3
If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4
If it could come about that each of us were to describe his innermost secrets —secrets which one would hesitate to tell not only to people at large, but even to one’s closest friends, nay, to fear to admit even to one’s own self - the world would be filled with such a stench that each one of us would choke to death. That’s why, speaking in parenthesis, all our social conventions and niceties are so beneficial.Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5
Frankly, if there ever was a time when I was really happy, it wasn't during those first intoxicating moments of my success, but long before that, when I hadn't yet read or shown my manuscript to anyone -- during those long nights of ecstatic hopes and dreams and passionate love of my work, when I had grown attached to my vision, to the characters I had created myself, as though they were my own offspring, as though they really existed -- and I loved, rejoiced and grieved over them, at times even shedding quite genuine tears over my guileless hero.Fyodor Dostoyevsky