Ivan Karamazov

"The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular"

"Active love is harsh and dreadful when compared with love in dreams"

"I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for by the fact that I have lived"

"Truth is higher than happiness"

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of"

"The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for."

"I love humanity, but I am amazed at myself: I could never love my neighbors, only the distant ones."

"If God does not exist, then everything is permitted."

"For every one of us it is true that we came into the world without our consent and leave it against our will."

"People speak sometimes about the 'bestial' cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust to beasts."

"One can love one's neighbor in the abstract, or even at a distance, but at close quarters it is almost impossible."

"If there is no God, everything is lawful. But is everything really lawful?"

"The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular."

"I maintain that suffering is not always a source of virtue; sometimes it creates nothing but bitterness."

"Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it admits of being easily got rid of."

"I could not even be happy in knowing that torment should cease for others."

"The more you love humanity in general, the less you love individual human beings."

"There is no greater torment than the consciousness of wrongdoing."

"The greatest happiness is not the satisfaction of the passions, but their transcendence."

"Man desires harmony; but he also desires chaos."

"I could never understand how one can love one's neighbors. It's just one's neighbors, I think, that one cannot possibly love"

"If there is no God, then everything is permitted"

"The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular"

"I have a terrible fear of seeming ridiculous, and that has kept me happy ever since"

"I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him; he has created him in his own image and likeness"

"The more advanced the society, the more unhappy it becomes"

"True civilization does not lie in gas pipes"

"I cannot bear to see the suffering of little children"

"Freedom is terrifying because it leaves us responsible for our choices"

"Doubt is the torture of the thinking man"