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Fyodor Dostoevsky on fatherhood, character, and how to live

5 sourced quotes from Fyodor Dostoevsky, each with the original work, the year, and links to a primary or scholarly source you can check yourself. Selected for what they say to a man raising children.

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth…”
The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 2, 1880
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action... But active love is labor…”
The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 4, 1880
“Every one is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything.”
The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI, 1880
“Love children especially, for they too are sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts and as it were to guide us. Woe to him…”
The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI ("The Russian Monk"), Father Zossima's exhortations, 1880
“There is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of…”
The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, Chapter 3, 1880

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

DadVice matches wisdom like this to the real situations of fatherhood — the hard conversation, the long night, the moment you do not know what to say. Every quote is sourced. No motivational filler.

Works quoted here: The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 2, The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 4, The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI, The Brothers Karamazov, Book VI ("The Russian Monk"), Father Zossima's exhortations, The Brothers Karamazov, Epilogue, Chapter 3.