To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most terrible punishment so that the most ferocious murderer would shudder at it beforehand, one need only give him work of an absolutely, completely useless and irrational character.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

House of the Dead

More information about this quote

Topic

Alienating work Alienation Absurdity Shitty jobs Work

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Source

House of the Dead

Medium

Novel

Language

Russian

Time

1862 1860s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

Russia Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. "Записки из Мёртвого дома [The House of the Dead]." Vremya, 1860-1862.

Current Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead, translated by David McDuff. Penguin Classics, 1986.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky about alienating work: “To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most…”
Download
A quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky about alienating work: “To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most…”
Download
A quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky about alienating work: “To crush, to annihilate a man utterly, to inflict on him the most…”
Download

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Beauty will save the world.

Adelaida

Quoted in The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

More information about this quote
Topic
Beauty Salvation
Speaker
Adelaida

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky
Source
The Idiot
Medium
Novel
Language
Russian
Time
1869 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. "Идиот [The Idiot]." The Russian Messenger, 1868–69.

Current Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Idiot, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky. Vintage, 2003, pt. 1, ch. 6.

Another quote from the 1860s

If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?

Abraham Lincoln

Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon
Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website
More information about this quote
Topic
American Civil War Slavery American politics God and America
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Source
Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln Presidential inaugural address
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Statement Type
Question
Language
English
Time
1865 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Second Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1865, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Second Inaugral Address, March 4, 1865." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 2018.

Another quote about Work

As I sit looking out of a window of the building
I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new metal.
I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an inner peace,
And envy them-they are so far away from me!
Not one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on schedule.

John Ashbery

The Instruction Manual

More information about this quote
Topic
Observing others Work

Author

John Ashbery
Source
The Instruction Manual
Medium
Poem
Language
English
Time
1956 1950s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Ashbery, John. "The Instruction Manual." Some Trees: Yale Series Of Younger Poets. Yale University Press, 1956, I. 1.

Another quote from 1862

Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue.

Abraham Lincoln

Buy Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings at Amazon Buy Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings at Amazon
Read the full text of this speech at umich.edu
More information about this quote
Topic
American Civil War Slavery

Author

Abraham Lincoln
Source
Second Annual Message to Congress
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1862 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Second Annual Message to Congress." 1 Dec. 1862, US Congress, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote originally in Russian

When a man spends the least possible number of movements over one definite action, that is grace.

Anton Chekhov

More information about this quote
Topic
Grace

Author

Anton Chekhov
Medium
Letter
Statement Type
Definition
Language
Russian
Time
1899 1890s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Chekhov, Anton. Letter to Alexi Peshkov (Maxim Gorky). 3 Jan. 1899.

Current Citation

Chekhov, Anton. "To Alexi Peshkov (Gorky), 3 January 1899, Yalta." A Life in Letters, translated by Rosamund Bartlett and Anthony Phillips. Penguin Classics, 2004.