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
Lamentations comfort only by lacerating the heart still more. Such grief does not desire consolation. It feeds on the sense of its hopelessness. Lamentations spring only from the constant craving to re-open the wound.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the nature of grief and how lamenting can intensify one's pain instead of providing relief.
Dostoevsky suggests that the act of lamenting does not bring comfort but rather deepens the sorrow and hopelessness associated with grief. Instead of seeking consolation, those who lament often desire to continually revisit their pain, illustrating how some emotional wounds may require acknowledgment rather than healing.
Themes
GriefLamentationsHopelessnessPainConsolation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about overcoming personal challenges, one might quote Dostoevsky to illustrate the depths of emotional struggles.
More from Fyodor Dostoevsky
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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.
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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
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