Sublime

Dostoevsky’s heroes ‘feel deeply because they think deeply; they suffer endlessly because they were endlessly deliberative; they dare to will because they have dared to think’.

precisely the type of man who is not only worthless and depraved but muddleheaded as well—one of those muddleheaded people who still handle their own little business deals quite skillfully, if nothing else.

Je ne refuse pas d’admettre Dieu ; mais je lui rends son billet , respectueusement.

The righteous man departs, but his light remains.

Mort tragiquement à Venise en 1913 à l’âge de cinquante-trois ans, cet auteur catholique décadent d’une ténacité « insurpassable » est convaincu de sa supériorité naturelle. Michel Houellebecq se serait-il reconnu dans le portrait que Corvo brosse du héros éponyme de son livre Nicholas Crabbe ? « S’il avait suivi ses penchants, il aurait vécu seul

For monks are not a different sort of men, but only such as all men on earth ought also to be.

For people are created for happiness, and he who is completely happy can at once be deemed worthy of saying to himself: ‘I have fulfilled God’s commandment on this earth.’ All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were happy.”

If we’re to come to love a man, the man himself should stay hidden, because as soon as he shows his face—love vanishes.”

the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular, that is, individually, as separate persons.