Fyodor

I've discovered that I do like Dostoevsky.
He's grown on me over the years.

Anyway, I thought I would scribble down a few of his loveliest thoughts...

"The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for."

"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken."

"The soul is healed by being with children."

"It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas."

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it."

"To live without hope is to cease to live."

"To love someone means to see him as God intended him."

"Life is a gift. Life is happiness, every minute can be an eternity of happiness... Life is everywhere, life is in ourselves, not in the exterior."

The way being short

Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I think we are too ready with complaint
In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope
Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope
Of yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faint
To muse upon eternity's constraint
Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop,
For a few days consumed in loss and taint?
O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted
And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road
Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread
Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod
To meet the flints? At least it may be said
'Because the way is short, I thank thee, God.'