Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. Profoundly inspirational Crime and Punishment quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.
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Famous Crime and Punishment Quotes
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. Rodion Raskolnikov
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. Fyodor Dostoevsky
I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity. Rodion Raskolnikov
To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s. Fyodor Dostoevsky
We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is. Raskolnikov
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. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
If he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be! How true it is! Good God, how true! Man is a vile creature! And vile is he who calls him vile for that. Raskolnikov
But all at once, in that same moment, she understood everything. Infinite happiness lit up in her eyes; she understood, and for her there was no longer any doubt that he loved her, loved her infinitely, and that at last the moment had come. Raskolnikov
It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I’ve known Rodion for a year and a half sullen, gloomy, arrogant, proud; recently and maybe much earlier insecure and hypochondriac. Magnanimous and kind. Doesn’t like voicing his feelings, and would rather do something cruel than speak his heart out in words. Razumikhin
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most. Fyodor Dostoevsky
She was a complete slave and went in fear and trembling of her sister, who made her work day and night, and even beat her. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Then Raskolnikov dealt Alyona another and another blow with the blunt side and on the same spot. The blood gushed as from an overturned glass; the body fell back. Fyodor Dostoevsky
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. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Human nature is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not supposed to exist! They believe that a social system that has come out of some mathematical brain is going to organise all humanity at once and make it just and sinless in an instant, quicker than any living process! The living soul demands life; the soul won’t obey the rules of mechanics. Fyodor Dostoevsky
When reason fails, the devil helps! Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It’s not a matter of permission or prohibition. He will suffer if he is sorry for his victim. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. Fyodor Dostoevsky
I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Why am I going there now? Am I capable of that? Is that serious? It is not serious at all. It’s simply a fantasy to amuse myself; a plaything! Yes, maybe it is a plaything. Fyodor Dostoevsky
A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment as well as the prison. Fyodor Dostoevsky
We’re always thinking of eternity as an idea that cannot be understood, something immense. But why must it be? What if, instead of all this, you suddenly find just a little room there, something like a village bath house, grimy, and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is. Sometimes, you know, I can’t help feeling that that’s what it is. Fyodor Dostoevsky
And what if it was I who killed the old woman and Lizaveta? But can it be?Admit that you believed it! Right? Am I right? Raskolnikov
The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Suffering, too, is a good thing. Suffer! Fling yourself straight into life, without deliberation; don’t be afraid the flood will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again. You must fulfil the demands of justice. Porfiry
And the more I drink the more I feel it. That’s why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink. I drink so that I may suffer twice as much! Fyodor Dostoevsky
What all men need is fresh air, fresh air more than anything! Svidrigaïlov
Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it one must have the courage to dare. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nothing in the world is harder than candour, and nothing easier than flattery. Candour that contains even the faintest false note results in immediate dissonance and a scene is sure to follow. Flattery, even if it contains false notes and nothing else, is always welcome and heard with pleasure; a vulgar kind of pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nonetheless. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
They’ve wept over it and grown used to it. Raskolnikov
The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence. Fyodor Dostoevsky
She was a suicide, drowned. She was no more than fourteen, but that heart had been broken, and had destroyed itself. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. Fyodor Dostoevsky
People who were infected immediately became like men possessed and out of their minds. Men killed one another in senseless rage. Fyodor Dostoevsky
It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn? Marmeladov’s question came suddenly into his mind for every man must have somewhere to turn. Fyodor Dostoevsky
God has such gladness every time he sees from heaven that a sinner is praying to Him with all his heart, as a mother has when she sees the first smile on her baby’s face. Fyodor Dostoevsky
What do you think? shouted Razumihin, louder than ever, you think I am attacking them for talking nonsense? Not a bit! I like them to talk nonsense. That’s man’s one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen. And a fine thing, too, in its way; but we can’t even make mistakes on our own account! Talk nonsense, but talk your own nonsense, and I’ll kiss you for it. To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s. In the first case you are a man, in the second you’re no better than a bird. Truth won’t escape you, but life can be cramped. There have been examples. And what are we doing now? In science, development, thought, invention, ideals, aims, liberalism, judgment, experience and everything, everything, everything, we are still in the preparatory class at school. We prefer to live on other people’s ideas, it’s what we are used to! Am I right, am I right? cried Razumihin, pressing and shaking the two ladies’ hands. Fyodor Dostoevsky
I like them to talk nonsense. That’s man’s one privilege over all creation. Through error you come to the truth! I am a man because I err! You never reach any truth without making fourteen mistakes and very likely a hundred and fourteen. Raskolnikov
