“Tyranny is a habit which may be developed until at last it becomes a disease. I declare that the noblest nature can become so hardened and bestial that nothing distinguishes it from that of a wild animal. Blood and power intoxicate; they help to develop callousness and debauchery. The mind then becomes capable of the most abnormal cruelty, which it regards pleasure; the man and the citizen are swallowed up in the tyrant; and the return to human dignity, repentance, moral resurrection, becomes almost impossible.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The House of the Dead
Here’s some more Dostoyevsky for those poor students in Milan…
“For socialism is not merely the labour question, it is before all things the atheistic question, the question of the form taken by atheism to-day, the question of the tower of Babel built without God, not to mount to Heaven from Earth but to set up Heaven on earth.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete beastiality, and it all comes form lying continually to others and himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked up on a word and made a mountain out of a pea–he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility...” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
But you can’t really appreciate Dostoyevsky unless you read his works in full - but that may be dangerous, you know… because he’s Russian.
I find the efforts to "cancel Russia" - from banning books to vodka - to be truly Orwellian. Imagine if the world had canceled the USA after we invaded Iraq (twice).
PS I am unable to like this - getting an error from Substack.
Dostoevsky Banned
Just when you thought you couldn't be surprised anymore by acts of stupidity...
We are indeed witnessing stupidity of Brobdingnagian proportions, With 'average' intelligence appearing to have dropped from 50 to around 35.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky who?
I find the efforts to "cancel Russia" - from banning books to vodka - to be truly Orwellian. Imagine if the world had canceled the USA after we invaded Iraq (twice).
PS I am unable to like this - getting an error from Substack.
“Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.”
—Dostoyevsky