Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, philosopher, and journalist, regarded as one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature. Born in Moscow, Dostoevsky studied at the St. Petersburg Military Engineering Academy before leaving to pursue writing. His early works, such as “Poor Folk” and “The Double,” established his reputation as a writer, but it was his later novels, including “Crime and Punishment,” “The Brothers Karamazov,” and “The Idiot,” that cemented his legacy. Dostoevsky’s works often explore themes of existentialism, morality, and redemption, and he is known for his deep psychological insight into his characters.
His contributions to literature have influenced countless writers and thinkers, and his impact on the development of modern literature cannot be overstated.
Dostoevsky’s personal life was marked by tragedy, including the loss of his father when he was just 15 years old, and his own imprisonment for political activism. He was sentenced to death by firing squad in 1849, but at the last moment, his sentence was commuted to four years of hard labor in Siberia. This experience deeply influenced his writing and provided him with insights into the human condition that are reflected in his works.
Despite facing personal and financial struggles throughout his life, Dostoevsky remained committed to his writing and continued to produce powerful works until his death at the age of 59. Today, he is considered a literary giant whose contributions continue to resonate with readers around the world.
Dostoevsky Quotes from Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment is about the grief and illness of Rodion Raskolnikov, a poor former student in St. Petersburg, who murders an old pawnbroker and her sister. Raskolnikov believes he is a superior being and justifies the crime as a way to prove his own greatness. However, his guilt and fear begin to consume him, and he is driven mad, egged on by a detective named Porfiry Petrovich.
The novel explores themes of morality, guilt, and redemption, and is considered one of the greatest works of Russian literature. It is certainly one of my favorite books, and has some of the best Dostoevsky quotes in all his works.
You can read Crime and Punishment for free right here on Project Gutenberg. My favorite of all the Crime and Punishment quotes is highlighted in yellow. Which is your favorite?
The Best Quotes from Crime and Punishment
He was so immersed in himself and had isolated himself so much from everyone that he was afraid not only of meeting his landlady but of meeting anyone at all.
Crime and Punishment
“And besides, if one wants to know any man well, one must consider him gradually and carefully so as to not fall into error and prejudice, which are very difficult to correct and smooth out later.”
Pulcheria Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment
Do you understand, do you understand, my dear sir, what it means when there is no longer anywhere to go?
Marmeladov, Crime and Punishment
…with that strange feeling of inner satisfaction which can always be observed, even in those who are near and dear, when a sudden disaster befalls their neighbor, and which is to be found in all men, without exception, however sincere their feelings of sympathy and commiseration.
Crime and Punishment
Pyotr Petrovich, who for some reason had cashed several five percent bank notes that morning, sat at the table and counted through the bundles of bills and series. Andrei Semyonovich, who almost never had any money, was pacing the room, pretending to himself that he looked upon all those bundles with indifference, and even with contempt. Pyotr Petrovich would in no way have believed, for example, that Andrei Semyonovich could indeed look upon so much money with indifference; and Andrei Semyonovich, in his turn, reflected bitterly that Pyotr Petrovich was indeed capable of having such thoughts about him, and, furthermore, was perhaps glad of the chance to prod and tease his young friend with the laid out bundles of bills, reminding him of his nonentity and all the difference supposedly existing between the two of them.
Crime and Punishment
“And if we look straight, in all ways–will there be many good people left? No, in that case I’m sure that I, with all my innards, would be worth about as much as one baked onion, and then only with you thrown in!…”
Razumikhin, Crime and Punishment
“Practicality is acquired with effort, it doesn’t fall from the sky for free.”
Razumikhin, Crime and Punishment
“What came of it [‘love my neighbor’] was that I tore my caftan in two, shared it with my neighbor, and we were both left half naked, as the Russian proverb says: If you chase several hares at once, you won’t catch any of them!”
Pyotr Petrovich, Crime and Punishment
“We got onto the eternal questions, and it all stayed in the clouds.”
Razumikhin, Crime and Punishment
“And I say that you, with all your virtues, are not worth the little finger of that unfortunate girl at whom you are casting a stone.”
Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment
“Your article is absurd and fantastic, but there are flashes of such sincerity in it, there is pride in it, youthful and incorruptible, there is the courage of despair; it’s a gloomy article, sir, but that’s a good thing.”
Porfiry Petrovich, Crime and Punishment
“What, won’t you allow that such a nation as ours produces fantastic people?”
Porfiry Petrovich, Crime and Punishment
“One seldom finds a place where there are so many gloomy, sharp, and strange influences on the soul of man as in Petersburg.”
Svidrigailov, Crime and Punishment
This alone he recognized as his crime: that he had not endured it, but had gone and confessed.
Crime and Punishment
We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.
Crime and Punishment
“Lying is man’s only privilege over all other organisms.”
Razumikhin, Crime and Punishment
“Indeed, in that sense we’re all rather often almost like mad people, only with the slight difference that the ‘sick’ are somewhat madder than we are, so that it’s necessary to draw a line here. And the harmonious man, it’s true, almost doesn’t exist; out of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, one will be found, and quite a weak specimen at that…”
Zossimov, Crime and Punishment
“He’s an intelligent man, but it takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.
Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment
As soon as he heard that his guest had “a little business” with him, he at once asked him to sit down on the sofa, sat down himself at the other end, and stared at his guest, expecting an immediate account of the business, with the sort of eager and all too serious attention that from the first becomes burdensome and embarrassing, especially for a stranger, and especially when what is being recounted seems, in one’s own opinion, out of all proportion to the unusually weighty attention accorded it.
Crime and Punishment
“I only believe in my main idea. It consists precisely in people being divided generally, according to the law of nature, into two categories: a lower one, ordinary people, who are, so to speak, material serving solely for the reproduction of their own kind; and proper people–that is, those who have the gift or talent of speaking a new word into their environment.”
Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment
“There’s nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is only the hundredth part of a false note in candor, there is immediately a dissonance, and then–scandal. But with flattery, even if everything is false down to the last little note, it is still agreeable and is listened to not without pleasure; crude though the pleasure may be, it is still a treasure.”
Svidrigailov, Crime and Punishment
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