"Believe me, the most complete aberration of human hearts and minds is always possible."

"[O]ne has absolutely no understanding  even of one's own nature.  And all of a sudden the question of 'the interests of civilization' comes up with enormous authority!"

"The truth must be preserved somewhere, at least; at least one of the nations must cast forth its light.  Otherwise, what will happen?  Everything will grow dark and confused and will drown in cynicism."

"Art, I mean genuine art, develops during a prolonged peace precisely because it is at odds with the heavy and immoral slumber of souls; in such periods the creations of art always invoke an ideal, generate protest and indignation, rouse society, and often cause suffering for those who long to awaken and climb out of the stinking pit."

"And what happiness is superior to faith?"

"So don't tell me that I don't know the People!  I know them: it was from them I accepted Christ into my soul again, and whom I had known while still a child in my parents' home and whom I was about to lose when I, in my turn, transformed myself into a 'European liberal.'"

"Science is one thing, enlightenment is another."

"In making the individual responsible, Christianity thereby acknowledges his freedom.  In making the individual dependent on every flaw in the social structure, however, the doctrine of the environment reduces him to an absolute nonentity...Enough contortions, gentlemen of the bar.  Enough of your 'environment.'"

"'One must portray reality as it is,' they say, whereas reality such as this does not exist and never has on earth because the essence of things is inaccessible to man."

"I have a secret conviction that our young people are suffering and longing because of the absence of higher aims in the life of our society."

All of the above transcriptions belong to Fyodor Dostoyevsky.