Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to lov... - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

"For if there's no everlasting God, there's no such thing as virtue, and there's no need of it."

"I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular."

"Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet only through them lies the way to real true freedom. I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires, I subdue my proud and wanton will and chastise it with obedience, and with God's help I attain freedom of spirit and with it spiritual joy."

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."

"What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love."