Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes

There is but on virtue--the eternal sacrifice of self.

It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.

I am astonished at the pleasure one experiences in doing good; and I should be tempted to believe that what we call virtuous people have not so much merit as they lead us to suppose.

The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

Let no man be sorry he has done good, because others have done evil.

In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But theworks of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.

Be noble in every thought And in every deed!

I think kindness is a sort of gateway virtue - having that simple aspiration can get you into deep water very quickly - in a good way.

The higher type of man clings to virtue, the lower type of man clings to material comfort. The higher type of man cherishes justice, the lower type of man cherishes the hope of favors to be received.

Keep doing good deeds long enough, and you'll probably turn out a good man in spite of yourself.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

The shortest way to arrive at glory would be to do that for conscience which we do for glory.

Just in proportion as a man becomes good, divine, Christ-like, he passes out of the region of theorizing, of system-building, and hireling service, into the region of beneficent activities. It is well to think well. It is divine to act well.

We all are motivated by deep impulses and deep appetites to serve, even though we may not be able to locate that which we are hoping to serve. So this is just a part of my nature and I think everybody else's nature to offer oneself at the critical moment when the emergency becomes articulate. It's only then that we can locate that willingness to serve.

Kindness steers no easy course. Attributing it to character, we seldom recognize the secret efforts of a noble heart, whereas we reward really wicked people for the evil they refrain from committing.

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

I believe that you and I - and everyone we'll ever meet - has the inborn capacity to be heroic, to take daring, courageous, and noble steps to make life better for others, even when in the short term it seems to be at our own expense. The capacity to do the right thing, to dare to take a stand and make a difference, is within you now.

If we should cease to be generous and charitable because another is sordid and ungrateful, it would be much in the power of vice to extinguish Christian virtues.

Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness and yet live, his escape from death is mere good fortune.

Where envy reigns virtue can't exist, and generosity doesn't go with meanness.

Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?

Being generous, just helping one's relatives and being blameless in one's actions; this is the best good luck.

I have found that the more I get my ego out of a picture and the more I think about how can I serve other people instead of always thinking about me, the more miracles show up.

There is another kind of altruism that seems to go beyond that, a kind of super-altruism, which humans appear to have. And I think that does need a Darwinian explanation.