Albert Einstein held Fyodor Dostoevsky in extremely high regard, famously stating, "Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss!". He considered The Brothers Karamazov to be the "supreme summit of all literature" and felt the author offered profound insights into human existence, morality, and psychology that surpassed scientific or mathematical, such as Gauss's, contributions to his understanding of life.
What did Einstein say about The Brothers Karamazov?
"Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientific thinker, more than Gauss. Dostoevsky showed us life, but his goal was to draw our attention to the mystery of mental existence. Was excited to read The Karamazov Brothers. This is the most impressive book I've ever gotten my hands on." — Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein's favorite philosopher was Baruch Spinoza, whose concept of a single, unified, orderly universe (God as Nature) deeply resonated with Einstein's own pantheistic beliefs and scientific worldview. Spinoza's emphasis on reason and understanding the universe's harmonious, law-bound structure aligned perfectly with Einstein's view of a divine, impersonal force revealed through physics. Einstein also admired David Hume and Arthur Schopenhauer but Spinoza was the most influential on his fundamental outlook.
Dostoevsky's seizures were likely temporal lobe epilepsy, which is known to affect emotions, memory, and sensory perception. His seizures manifested in various ways: sometimes he would lose consciousness and experience convulsions, while other times he would undergo strange perceptual and emotional disturbances.
Cataloguing the letters from Albert Einstein to his closest friend, Michele Besso, was a roller-coaster ride: intellectually exhilarating, funny, endearing — and with an unexpected conclusion.
✨ "When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created this universe, everything else seems so superfluous." – Albert Einstein ✨ Albert Einstein, a genius of the modern age, found deep wisdom in the timeless verses of the Bhagavad Gita.
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!
I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
Did Dostoevsky believe in nihilism? Dostoevsky did not believe in nihilism. Crime and Punishment is designed to show the danger of such a philosophy, since Raskolnikov hurts others, including his own family, due to his belief in nihilism.
The violent realism of his writing and its frantic existentialism fits strangely well into modern literary appetites, while his anti-capitalism is surely appealing to young readers exhausted by the desperate failures of contemporary mainstream politics.
It is reasonable to wonder about the impact gambling had upon the author. During the eight years when he was addicted to roulette, Dostoevsky wrote Notes from Underground (1864), Crime and Punishment (1866), The Gambler (1866), The Idiot (1868), and Demons (1871–2).
Freud believes Dostoevsky's Russian nationalism and religious fanaticism that marked his political philosophy later in life were submissions to father figures as self-inflicted penance: “[He] accepted the undeserved punishment at the hands of the Little Father, the Tsar, as a substitute for the punishment he deserved ...
Marilyn vos Savant. Marilyn vos Savant (/ˌvɒs səˈvɑːnt/ VOSS sə-VAHNT; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the Guinness Book of Records, a competitive category the publication has since retired.
“Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky The deepest mistake is not hurting others — but betraying your own soul. Dostoevsky warns against compromising who you are for things that aren't worth it.
In particular there are some quite specific references to epilepsy, such as Matthew 4:24. Arguably the most famous epilepsy healing reference in the Bible can be found in Mark 9:17-27; Matthew 17:14-18 and Luke 9:37-43 which all describe Jesus healing the boy with epilepsy by driving out an evil spirit.
However, Dostoevsky might have developed new ways to cope with this kind of stress. In 1881, the great writer died of a lung hemorrhage likely caused by smoking, which he began in prison.
