A review by lyleelou11
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

5.0

“I am a dreamer. I have so little of real life that I look up such moments as this so rare, that I cannot help going over such moments in my dreams. I shall be dreaming of you all night, a whole week, a whole year.”

“I don’t know how to be silent when my heart is speaking.”

“I was already regretting that I had gone so far, that I had unnecessarily described what had long been simmering in my heart. About which I could speak as though from a written account of it, because I had long ago passed judgement on myself, and now could not resist reading it, making my confession, without expecting to be understood.”

“Do you know far you have reconciled me to myself? Do you know that I shall not think so ill of myself as I have at some moments? Do you know that maybe I shall leave off grieving over the crime and sin of my life? For such a life is a crime and a sin.”

“And if I had been fond of you for twenty years, I couldn’t have been fonder of you than I am now.”

“Tell me, how is it that we can’t all be like brothers together? Why is it that even the best of men always seem to hide something from other people, and to keep something back? Why not say straight out what is in one’s heart, when one knows that one is not speaking idly? As it is, everyone seems harsher than he really is, as thought all were afraid of doing injustice to their feelings, by being too quick to express them.”

“My God, a whole moment of happiness, is that too little for the whole of a mans’ life?”