HomeQuotesFyodor Dostoevsky
Literature and scripture
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 and fortitude.
The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 4, 1880
Translated by Constance Garnett · Literature and scripture
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What this means, and why it matters to a father

Spoken by Father Zosima to a woman of little faith, this passage is among the most quoted in all of Dostoevsky—a distinction between sentimental feelings about love and the daily labor of actually loving someone.

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Related themes

lovesacrificepatience

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