Great Throughts Treasury

"Love is such a priceless treasure that you can buy the whole world with it, and redeem not only your own but other people's sins. Go, and do not be afraid."

"Love it, regardless of logic as you say. It must be regardless of logic."

"Love life more than the meaning of it?"

"Love one another, fathers, the elder taught (as far as Alyosha could recall afterwards). Love God's people. For we are not holier than those in the world because we have come here and shut ourselves within these walls, but, on the contrary, anyone who comes here, by the very fact that he has come, already knows himself to be worse than all those who are in the world, worse than all on earth...And the longer a monk lives within his walls, the more keenly he must be aware of it. For otherwise he had no reason to come here. But when he knows that he is not only worse than all those in the world, but is also guilty before all people, on behalf of all and for all, for all human sins, the world's and each person's, only then will the goal of our unity be achieved. For you must know, my dear ones, that each of us is undoubtedly guilty on behalf of all and for all on earth, not only because of the common guilt of the world, but personally, each one of us, for all people and for each person on this earth. This knowledge is the crown of the monk's path, and of every man's path on earth. For monks are not a different sort of men, but only such as all men on earth ought also to be. Only then will our hearts be moved to a love that is infinite, universal, and that knows no satiety. Then each of us will be able to gain the whole world by love and wash away the world's sins with his tears... Let each of you keep close company with his heart, let each of you confess to himself untiringly. Do not be afraid of your sin, even when you perceive it, provided you are repentant, but do not place conditions on God. Again I say, do not be proud. Do not be proud before the lowly, do not be proud before the great either. And do not hate those who reject you, disgrace you, revile you, and slander you. Do not hate atheists, teachers of evil, materialists, not even those among them who are wicked, nor those who are good, for many of them are good, especially in our time. Remember them thus in your prayers: save, Lord, those whom there is no one to pray for, save also those who do not want to pray to you. And add at once: it is not in my pride that I pray for it, Lord, for I myself am more vile than all... Love God's people, do not let newcomers draw your flock away, for if in your laziness and disdainful pride, in your self-interest most of all, you fall asleep, they will come from all sides and lead your flock away. Teach the Gospel to the people untiringly... Do not engage in usury... Do not love silver and gold, do not keep it...Believe, and hold fast to the banner. Raise it high."

"Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Do not trouble it, do not torture them, do not deprive them of their happiness, do not go against God. Man, do not magnify themselves against animals: they are without sin, and you, with your greatness gnoish ground with his appearance on her and trace your festering leave behind - alas, almost every one of us! Kids especially love, for they too are sinless, Thou angels, and live for our affection, to cleanse our hearts and as a kind of instruction to us. Woe to offend the baby."

"Love, it is the right that one gives to another of persecute us."

"Love, who mixed with hatred, when they pass away this love is left only a severe torment."

"Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing like it."

"Loving someone is different from being in love with someone. You can hate someone you're in love with."

"Low ceilings and tiny rooms cramp the soul and the mind."

"Lunatics! Vain creatures! They don't believe in God, they don't believe in Christ! Why, you are so eaten up with pride and vanity that you'll end up by eating one another, that's what I prophesy."

"Luxuries are easy to take up but very difficult to give up."

"Lying is a delightful thing for it leads to the truth."

"Magnanimous heart can love her with compassion."

"Man grows used to everything, the scoundrel!"

"Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice."

"Man is a creature that can get accustomed to anything, and I think that is the best definition of him."

"Man holds the remedy in his own hands, and lets everything go its own way, simply through cowardice- that is an axiom."

"Man is a mystery. It needs to be unraveled, and if you spend your whole life unraveling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being."

"Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man."

"Man is bound to lie about himself."

"Man is broad, too broad, indeed. I'd have him narrower."

"Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering, and that is a fact. There is no need to appeal to universal history to prove that."

"Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born."

"Man loves to construct and lay down roads, no question about it. But why is he so passionately fond of destruction and chaos? ... Isn't man so passionately fond of destruction and chaos (and there's no disputing that he's sometimes very fond of them, that really is the case) that he himself instinctively fears achieving his goal and completing the building in the course of erection? How do you know - perhaps he only likes the building from a distance and not at all at close quarters; perhaps he only likes building it and not living in it."

"Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys"

"Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to the animals; they are without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness after you -- alas, it is true of almost every one of us!"

"Man, that temporary, unstable, and just as an asset, such as chess players do not reach the goal more like paths to the destination. We cannot be sure of course, but people are struggling to achieve something, it might be the way to the goal, and that is life itself anyway. In fact, the target, is a formula that is two times two is four, but this formula is not life and death the beginning. People four to two and two always heard a little bit of fear, just as I've ever heard. Exceeds the seas for the sake of man, his life goal consumes two times two is four, but on the other hand, the fear of man to achieve this goal. Because the estimate would remain aware of an untargeted ... Human beings like progress to reach the destination is not a doubt this is ridiculous. People are born more ridiculous is that it has the pleasant side of the business. Two times two is four formula, however, something rather irresistible. I think two times two is four, a large scattering küstahl?kt?r and spitting around, hands on hips, a furnace Interceptor brain itself. I believe that two and two excellence, but it is superior to what I believe, is that twice two five."

"Man-every time, anywhere, no matter who commanded the logic and interests, rather than treated as his heart shot, things may be asked to conflicting interests, and sometimes even be the case in its entirety."

"Many strengths and talents disappear in Russia, deprived of freedom, condemn a plight."

"May you be forever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of one's life?"

"May your sky always be clear, may your dear smile always be bright and happy, and may you be forever blessed for that moment of bliss and happiness which you gave to another lonely and grateful heart. Isn't such a moment sufficient for the whole of one's life?"

"Maybe there was more than just the influence that special pride of the poor, due to which, under certain social rituals required in our daily life for everyone, many poor people stare a last effort and spend the last penny of savings just to be not Joneses and not to condemn them somehow those others."

"Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, 'I am doing God's will on earth."

"Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death."

"Merciful heavens! Human treatment may even render human a man in whom the image of God has long ago been tarnished. It is these 'unfortunates' that must be treated in the most human fashion. This is their salvation and their joy."

"Millions of people would die of boredom, lack of imagination, as happens to flies in autumn, if the oxygen deprive addict lie."

"Money is the honey of humanity."

"Most likely not, but he believed solely because he desired to believe and possibly he fully believed in his secret heart, even when he said: "I do not believe till I see"."

"Most of the guests consisted even though inspiring appearance, quite empty of people, who, however, and did not know, in his self-righteousness that much good in them - one dressing, which, moreover, they are not guilty, because she got to them unconsciously and inherited."

"Most of the time the people, even the villains, even our judgments rights pure, clean spirit will. So are we."

"Much on earth is concealed from us, but in place of it we have been granted a secret, mysterious sense of our living bond with the other world, with the higher heavenly world, and the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here but in other worlds. That is why philosophers say it is impossible on earth to conceive the essence of things. God took seeds from other worlds and sowed them on this earth, and raised up his garden; and everything that could sprout sprouted, but it lives and grows only through its sense of being in touch with other mysterious worlds; if this sense is weakened or destroyed in you, that which has grown up in you dies. Then you become indifferent to life, and even come to hate it."

"My best feelings, gratitude, for example, are formally forbidden solely because of my social position."

"My debauchery I undertook solitarily, by night, covertly, fearfully, filthily, with a shame that would not abandon me... I was then already bearing the underground in my soul."

"My feelings, gratitude, for instance, are denied me simply because of my social position."

"My friend, I've been lying all my life. Even when I was telling the truth. I never spoke for the truth, but only for myself, I knew that before, but only now do I see...Oh, where are those friends whom I have insulted with my friendship all my life? And everyone, everyone! Savez-vous, perhaps I'm lying now; certainly I'm also lying now. The worst of it is that I believe myself when I lie. The most difficult thing in life is to live and not lie...and... and not believe one's own lie, yes, yes, that's precisely it!"

"My friend, the truth is always implausible, did you know that? To make the truth more plausible, it's absolutely necessary to mix a bit of falsehood with it. People have always done so."

"My friends, ask gladness from God. Be glad as children, as birds in the sky. And let man's sin not disturb you in your efforts, do not fear that it will dampen your endeavor and keep it from being fulfilled, do not say, 'Sin is strong, impiety is strong, the bad environment is strong, and we are lonely and powerless, the bad environment will dampen us and keep our good endeavor from being fulfilled.' Flee from such despondency, my children! There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God."

"My friends, God is necessary for me if only because he is the one being who can be loved eternally."

"My God, but what do I care about the laws of nature and arithmetic if for some reason these laws and two times two is four are not to my liking? To be sure, I won't break through such a wall with my forehead if I really have not got strength to do it, but neither will I be reconciled with it simply because I have a stone wall here and have not got strength enough."