Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of the most famous writers in world literature. His great works masterfully interrogate the most important questions of life and death.

Here are 25 of the most insightful quotes from this great author. We’re certain that they’ll provide you with much food for thought.

1. You have to love life more than the meaning of life itself.
2. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
3. There is a boundary in everyone’s mind beyond which it is dangerous to go. Once you have crossed that line, it’s impossible to go back.
4. Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.
5. When you stop reading books, you cease to think.
6. Freedom is not found in restraining but in controlling yourself.
7. Happiness does not come from earthly comforts, but is earned through suffering.
8. In a truly loving heart, either jealousy kills love, or love kills jealousy.
9. It doesn’t take much to destroy a person. All one would have to do is convince him that the work he does is completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.
10. Silence is always beautiful, and a silent person is always more beautiful than one who talks.
11. A person can be wise, but in order to act wisely, intelligence alone is not enough.
12. You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.
13. I want to talk about everything with at least one person as I talk about things with myself.
14. It’s incredible what just one ray of sunlight can do for your soul.
15. One must talk openly with others, in a way which reveals one’s inner thoughts through one’s face, which reveals the troubles of one’s heart directly in one’s words. One word said with conviction, with complete sincerity and without any hesitation, while staring into a person’s eyes, means more than dozens of pages from a book.
16. One feels suffocated without a goal in life.
17. The soul is healed by being with children.
18. Even a person whose hands are bound can do much good, should they so wish.
19. Beauty will save the world.
20. People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.
21. Grown-up people do not know that a child can give exceedingly good advice even in the most difficult case.
22. Don’t fill up your memory with all the times you felt offended; you might end up with no space left for the more wonderful moments you’ve experienced.
23. A person who knows how to embrace another is a good person.