If everything in the universe were sensible, nothing would happen.
Attributed
insightuniverserationalnothingSource: “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880)
If everything in the universe were sensible, nothing would happen.
Source: “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880)
For the secret of a man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.
Source: The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book V, ch. 5 'The Grand Inquisitor'; Constance Garnett translation
The Grand Inquisitor speaks these lines to the silent Christ. The English is Garnett's. Note for the record that this is a character's argument, and a deliberately corrosive one — the Inquisitor is making the case that people will trade freedom for bread and certainty — not Dostoevsky in his own voice. Attribution to the novel is certain.
They suffer, of course... But then they live, they live a real life, not a fantastic one, for suffering is life. Without suffering what would be the pleasure of life? Life would be transformed into an endless church service; it would be holy, but tedious.
Source: The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Book XI, ch. 9 'The Devil. Ivan Fyodorovich's Nightmare'; Constance Garnett translation
Spoken by the devil in Ivan's hallucination, defending suffering as what keeps existence from becoming 'an endless church service... holy, but tedious.' I am confident of the novel and the chapter; wording varies slightly across translations ('what would be the pleasure of it'). Important context: the speaker is the devil, so quoting it as Dostoevsky's sincere view misreads the scene.