“I used to imagine adventures for myself, I invented a life, so that I could at least exist somehow.”
― Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
― Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
“To be perfectly original one should think much and read little, and this is impossible, for one must have read before one has learnt to think.”
―
―
“I am a fool with a heart but no brains, and you are a fool with brains but no heart; and we’re both unhappy, and we both suffer.”
― The Idiot
― The Idiot
“He knew himself a villain—but he deem'd
The rest no better than the thing he seem'd;
And scorn'd the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt”
― The Corsair
The rest no better than the thing he seem'd;
And scorn'd the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt”
― The Corsair
“I exist.’ In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
Sullivan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Sullivan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Sullivan
Lists liked by Sullivan


























