"Herein lies the supreme wisdom, human and divine; and the task of philosophy consists in teaching men to submit joyously to Necessity which hears nothing and is indifferent to all."
- Lev Shestov
"Life would again have to make superhuman efforts, "as in a battle," to break open for himself a path through the truths created by the sciences which "dream of being but cannot see it in waking realit..."
"Suffering "buys" something, and this something possesses a certain value for all of us, for common consciousness; by suffering we buy the right to judge."
"But Dostoevsky does allow himself to ask just this very question: whether our reason has any right to judge between the possible and the impossible."
"They certified that I was sane; but I know that I am mad." This confession gives us the key to what is most important and significant in Tolstoy's hidden life."
"If Darwin had seen in life what Dostoevsky saw, he would not have talked of the law of the preservation of species, but of its destruction."
"St. Augustine hated the Stoics, Dostoevsky hated the Russian Liberals. At first sight this seems a quite inexplicable peculiarity. Both were convinced Christians, both spoke so much of love, and sudde..."
"But it will be asked: What is the force and power of the blessings and curses of men, even if these men be such giants as Plato and Aristotle? Does truth become more true because Aristotle blesses it,..."