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 DostoevskyRead
My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?
Interpretation
What this quote means
A fleeting moment of joy can hold immense value, potentially offering enough fulfillment for an entire life.
Dostoevsky highlights the profound impact that brief, blissful experiences can have on our overall sense of happiness. This quote suggests that even a single moment of joy can be so significant that it enriches our entire existence, indicating that quality of experience can outweigh quantity.
Themes
BlissLifeHappinessMomentFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of savoring lifeβs simple pleasures.
More from Fyodor Dostoevsky
All quotes βWhat if, when this fog scatters and flies upward, the whole rotten, slimey city goes with it, rises with the fog and vanishes like smoke.
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Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that if you have the guillotine in the forefront, and with such glee, it's for the sole reason that cutting heads off is the easiest thing, and having an idea is difficult!
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
...to return to their 'native soil,' as they say, to the bosom, so to speak, of their mother earth, like frightened children, yearning to fall asleep on the withered bosom of their decrepit mother, and to sleep there for ever, only to escape the horrors that terrify them.
Fyodor DostoevskyRead
Similar quotes
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
F. H. BradleyRead
Almost all the joyful things of life are outside the measure of IQ tests.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a life time, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.
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Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.
AristotleRead
And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt - this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty to find something beautiful within life no matter how slight.
Elizabeth GilbertRead
What day is it?" It's today," squeaked Piglet. My favorite day," said Pooh.
A. A. MilneRead