you're even more of a sinner because you've mortified and betrayed yourself for nothing.

To break what has to be broken, once and for always, that's all: and to take the suffering upon oneself!

you've lost your ability to see things from a common-sense point of view, and in fact you can't see anything at all

And who am I to set myself up as a judge of who should live and who should not?

You must accept suffering and redeem yourself by it

if you can reason with a person logically and show him that he really has nothing to cry about, then he'll stop crying

there is nothing particularly wrong with the organism of the insane person, and that insanity is, as it were, a logical error, an error of judgement, a mistaken view of things

he became a victim of his own temperament

a man will endure half an hour of mortal terror at the hands of a brigand, yet when the knife is finally put to his throat, even his terror passes

In lechery there is at least something permanent, something that is truly founded upon nature and is not subject to the imagination, something that is present like a constantly live coal in the blood, forever setting one on fire, a coal it will take a long time, possibly into one's old age, to put out

no matter how crude the flattery may be, at least half of it always seems genuine

why is it considered more respectable to hurl bombs at people in a regular siege? The fear of aesthetics is the first symptom of powerlessness!

I used to analyze myself down to the last thread, used to compare myself with others, recalled all the smallest glances, smiles and words of those to whom I’d tried to be frank, interpreted everything in a bad light, laughed viciously at my attempts ‘to be like the rest’ –and suddenly, in the midst of my laughing, I’d give way to sadness, fall into ludicrous despondency and once again start the whole process all over again – in short, I went round and round like a squirrel on a wheel.

When reason fails, the devil helps!

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.

Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it ... one must have the courage to dare.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

writing

Reading & Writing

education

Learning & Education

Crime and Punishment II

Everything lies in a man's hands, and if he lets it all slip past his nose it's purely out of cowardice

what are people most afraid of? Of doing something new, saying a new word of their own that hasn't been said before - that's what scares them most.

When a man is poor he may still preserve the nobility of his inborn feelings, but when he's destitute he never ever can. If a man's destitute he isn't even driven out with a stick, he's swept out of human society with a broom, to make it as insulting as possible﻿

What if man - the whole human race in general, I mean - isn't really a villain at all? If that's true, it means that all the rest is just a load of superstition, just a lot of fears that have been put into people's heads, and there are no limits, and that's how it's meant to be!

in order to be able to judge someone it's necessary to examine him for oneself, and at close quarters

Let my life go to hang, we say, just as long as those dear, beloved creatures of mine are happy.

When one is in a morbid state of health, one's dreams are often characterized by an unusual vividness and brilliance, and also by an extremely lifelike quality.

but with his whole being he suddenly felt that he no longer possessed any freedom of thought or of will, and that everything had suddenly been decided once and for all.

wouldn't one petty little crime like that be atoned for by all those thousands of good deeds?

Ah, but it's possible to correct and channel nature, you know, old man - otherwise we would all just drown in a sea of prejudice. If it weren't for that, there would never have been a single great man.

On the other hand, the question of whether it was an illness that gave rise to the crime, or whether the crime itself was,

As long as I can manage to preserve my will and my reason and exercise them over them to the fullest extent, then they in their turn will all be vanquished when it becomes necessary for them to acquaint themselves with every last, microscopic detail of the affair

There are some encounters, even with people who are complete strangers to us, in which we begin to take an interest right from the very first glance, suddenly, before we have uttered a word

one can always forgive a man for telling lies; lying's a harmless activity, because it leads to the truth

To talk nonsense in one's own way is almost better than to talk a truth that's someone else's;

in order to act cleverly, cleverness alone is not enough

crime is a protest against the craziness of the social system

People of genius are born one out of millions, while the great geniuses, the achievers of humanity, only come into being after many thousands of millions of people have passed through the earth

Pain and suffering are inevitable for persons of broad awareness and depth of heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth

over utterly trivial things like that that clever people are caught. The cleverer a person is, the less he suspects he'll be caught out over some ordinary thing like that

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also commits this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by comparing himself with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. Dostoyevsky conceived the idea of Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1865, having gambled away much of his fortune, unable to pay his bills or afford proper meals. At the time the author owed large sums of money to creditors, and was trying to help the family of his brother Mikhail, who had died in early 1864. Projected under the title The Drunkards, it was to deal "with the present question of drunkness ... [in] all its ramifications, especially the picture of a family and the bringing up of children in these circumstance, etc., etc." Once Dostoyevsky conceived Raskolnikov and his crime, now inspired by the case of Pierre François Lacenaire, this theme became ancillary, centering on the story of the Marmeladov family.

books

Books

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Crime and Punishment

It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made from the hands of opportunity

If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers too

It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it

Even as good shone upon the countenance of the one, evil was written broadly and plainly on the face of the other

My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. There are two personalities within Dr. Jekyll, one apparently good and the other evil; completely opposite levels of morality. The novel's impact is such that it has become a part of the language, with the very phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" coming to mean a person who is vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next. 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' is a thrilling Gothic horror novel. John Utterson, a prosecutor, is on his weekly walk with his relative, who proceeds to tell him of an encounter with a man he had seen some months ago while coming home late at night from Cavendish Place. The tale describes a sinister figure named Edward Hyde who tramples a young girl, disappears into a door on the street, and re-emerges to pay off her relatives with 10 pounds in gold and a cheque signed by respectable gentleman Dr. Henry Jekyll (a client and friend of Utterson's) for 90 pounds. Jekyll had recently and suddenly changed his will to make Hyde the sole beneficiary. This development concerns and disturbs Utterson, who makes an effort to seek out Hyde. Utterson fears that Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll for his money. Upon finally managing to encounter Hyde, Hyde's ugliness, as if deformed, amazes Utterson. Although Utterson cannot say exactly how or why, Hyde provokes an instinctive feeling of revulsion in him. Much to Utterson's surprise, Hyde willingly offers Utterson his address. After one of Jekyll's dinner parties, Utterson stays behind to discuss the matter of Hyde with Jekyll. Utterson notices Jekyll turning pale, yet he assures Utterson that everything involving Hyde is in order and that he is to be left alone.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed

But youth smiles without any reason

When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs

Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

It is said that passion makes one think in a circle

Skepticism is the beginning of Faith

To define is to limit

Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity

Romance loved by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible

In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, or the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak

Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful

Anything becomes a pleasure if one does it too often

Life is a question of nerves and fibers, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

The Picture of Dorian Gray III

I adore simple pleasures, they are the last refuge of the complex

Sin is the only real color-element left in modern life

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing cjarac

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect — simply a confession of failure

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up

It is only sacred things that are worth touching

When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others

There is always something infinitely mean about other people’s tragedies

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity

It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one’s face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams

Experience is of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes

To be in love is to surpass one’s self

The basis of optimism is sheer terror

I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich

The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming

There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to lovr

When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing

Conscience makes egotists of us all

The Picture of Dorian Gray II

The artist is the creator of beautiful things

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. That is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art

Those who go beneath the surface do so at their own peril

All art is quite useless

But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face

I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us

Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects

I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves

The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it

There is not doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty

Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies

Because to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul

Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind, and poisons us

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul

And beauty is a form of genius — is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation

Celebrated novel traces the moral degeneration of a handsome young Londoner from an innocent fop into a cruel and reckless pursuer of pleasure and, ultimately, a murderer. As Dorian Gray sinks into depravity, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait reflects the ravages of crime and sensuality.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and author of numerous short stories, and one novel. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest. As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years hard labour after being convicted of "gross indecency" with other men. After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry. He never returned to Ireland or Britain, and died in poverty.

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

When things are displaced, they are always on the move until they come to rest where they are meant to be

We are weak, and therefore pity leads us to give help to the needy, aiding them as we should wish to be aided ourselves if we were in like distress

But the arrogance of pride, the pleasures of lust, and the poison of vain curiosity are the impulses of a soul that is dead, not one so dead that it lacks all impulse, but one that is dead because it has forsaken the fountain of life and is swept along by the fleeting things of this world, lending itself to their ways

The man who has spiritual gifts also judges the faithful, approving what he finds to be right and blaming what he finds to be wrong in their deeds and their morals

It is only where it finds this true joy that the soul is nourished

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

history

History

Confessions of Saint Augustine Book XIII

The poverty of our human intellect generally produced and abundance of words, for more talk is spent in search than in discovery

Mutability, which belongs to all things that are subject to change, comprehends all the forms which those things take when changes occur in them

Without change of movement there is no time, and there can be no change where there is no form

I would rather write in this way than impose a single true meaning so explicitly that it would exclude all others, even though they contained no falsehood that could give me offense

Confessions of Saint Augustine Book XII

But in eternity nothing moves into the past: all is present. Time, on the other hand, is never all present at once. The past is always driven on by the future, the future always follows on the heels of the past, and both the past and the future have their beginning and their end in the eternal present

So we must not say that the past was long, because we shall not be able to find anything in it that could be long, for the simple reason that once it becomes the past it ceases to be

When we describe the past correctly, it is not past facts which are drawn on t of our memories but only words based on our memory-pictures of those facts, because when they happened, they left an impression on our minds, by means of our sense-perception

The future, then, is not yet; it is not at all; and if it is not at all, it cannot possibly be seen. But it can be foretold from things which are present, because they exist now and can therefore be seen

Our use of words is generally inaccurate and seldom completely correct, but our meaning is recognized none the less

The past increases in proportion as the future diminishes, until the future is entirely absorbed and the whole becomes past

So it is not future time that is long, but a long future is a long expectation of the future; and past is not long, because it does not exist, but a long past is a long remembrance of the past

Confessions of Saint Augustine Book XI

As for the other things in life, the more we weep for them, the less they merit our tears, and the fewer tears we shed for them, the more we ought to weep for them

It is simply that the memory captures their images with astonishing speed and stores them away in its wonderful system of compartments, ready to produce them again in just as wonderful a way when we remember them

I can be glad to remember sorrow that is over and done with and sorry to remember happiness that has come to an end

Yet, however it may be, and in whatever inexplicable and incomprehensible way it happens, I am certain that I remember forgetfulness, even though forgetfulness obliterates all that we remember

We do not say that we have found what was lost unless we recognize it, and we cannot recognize it unless we remember it. It was only lost to sight, not to the memory

For we do not entirely forget what we remember that we have forgotten. If we had completely forgotten it, we should not even be able to look for what was lost

The remembrance of past joy makes me sad

No one can say that he has no experience of joy, and this is why he finds it in his memory and recognizes it when he hears the phrase ‘a state of happiness’

For though he may rejoice in his power of endurance, he would prefer that there should be nothing for him to endure

It is curiosity, too, which causes men to turn to sorcery in the effort to obtain knowledge for the same perverted purpsoe

The human tongue is a furnace in which the temper of our souls is daily tried

For our love of praise leads us to court the good opinion of others and hoard it for our personal glorification

Crime and Punishment II

Crime and Punishment

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Picture of Dorian Gray III

The Picture of Dorian Gray II

Cassandra