Notes From The Underground Quotes

“I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness - a real thorough-going illness.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“Every decent man of our age must be a coward and a slave. That is his normal condition. Of that I am firmly persuaded. He is made and constructed to that very end. And not only at the present time owing to some casual circumstance, but always, at all times, a decent man is bound to be a coward and a slave.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“I want peace; yes, I'd sell the whole world for a farthing, straight off, so long as I was left in peace. Is the world to go to pot, or am I to go without my tea? I say that the world may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea. Did you know that, or not? Well, anyway, I know that I am a blackguard, a scoundrel, an egoist, a sluggard.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for variety of sensations - and absolutely nothing more.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“I'm now asking an idle question of my own: which is better--cheap happiness, or lofty suffering? Well, which is better?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“Information paints no picture, sings no song, and writes no poem.”
― R.F. Georgy, Notes from the Cafe

“But a man is a frivolous and incongruous creature, and perhaps, like a chess player, loves the process of the game, not the end of it.”
― Fydor Dostoyevsky

“Don't you see, gentlemen? Reason is a fine thing, there's no question about it, but reason is only reason and only satisfies man's rational faculties, whereas desire is a manifestation of the whole of life, that is of the whole of human life, along with reason and all our head-scratching... not just the extraction of a square root.”
― Dostoyevsky Fyodor

“We have an infinite supply of information and yet we cannot read.”
― R.F. Georgy

“Do not fear, you mind may be criticizes for losing track. Enjoy the fact that most may not ride the same train of thought.”
― C. Jerry

“I could not even imagine any place of secondary importance for myself, and for that very reason I quite contentedly occupied the most insignificant one in real life. Either a hero or dirt - there was no middle way. That turned out to be my undoing, for while wallowing in dirt I consoled myself with the thought that at other times I was a hero, and the hero overlaid the dirt: an ordinary mortal, as it were, was ashamed to wallow in dirt, but a hero was too exalted a person to be entirely covered in dirt, and hence I could wallow in dirt with an easy conscience.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead

“We are discussing things seriously; but if you won’t deign to give me your attention, I will drop your acquaintance. I can retreat into my underground hole.”
― Fyodor Doestoyevsky

“I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The digital age believes in the rational ordering of human beings. We believe that information will eventually solve every conceivable problem.”
― R.F. Georgy, Notes from the Cafe

“A decent, educated man cannot afford the luxury of vanity without being exceedingly exacting with himself and without occasionally despising himself to the point of hatred.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“t is of course clear that, owing to my unbounded vanity and hence also to my over-sensitiveness where my own person was concerned, I often looked at myself with a sort of furious dissatisfaction which verged on loathing, and for that reason I could not help attributing my own views to other people. I hated my own face, for instance, finding it odious to a degree and even suspecting that it had rather a mean expression, and so every time I arrived at the office I went through agonies in my efforts to assume as independent an air as possible so as to make sure that my colleagues did not suspect me of meanness and so as to give my face as noble an expression as possible. ‘What do I care,’ I thought to myself, ‘whether my face is ugly or not, so long as it is also noble, expressive, and above all, extremely intelligent.’ But I knew very well, I knew it agonisingly well, that it was quite impossible for my face to express such high qualities. But the really dreadful part was that I thought my face looked absolutely stupid. I would have been completely satisfied if it looked intelligent. Indeed, I’d have reconciled myself even to a mean expression so long as my face was at the same time generally admitted to be awfully intelligent.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Tabii ki, duvarı yıkmayı göze alamazsam kendimi parçalamayacağım, ama önümde bir duvar olduğu için gönderimi kabul edemem. F.M. Dostoyevski - Yeraltından Notlar
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Конечно, я не собираюсь рвать себя на куски, если не могу позволить себе снести стену, но я не могу принять покорность только потому, что передо мной стена. Ф.М. Достоевский - Записки из подполья”
― Dostoyevski FM

“I am crushed with tedium. Atter all, the direct, immediate, legitimate fruit of heightened consciousness is intertia, that is, the deliberate refusal to do anything. I have mentioned this before. I repeat, and repeat emphatically: all spontaneous people, men of action, are active because they are stupid and limited.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground