The Brothers Karamazov

Book One

For a realist, faith is not born of miracles, but miracles of faith.

Faith comes from believing a miracle will happen rather believing after witnessing.

In practical terms faith could be in things which are not religious. When stacked against the odds, believe in the best possible outcome. Although not a prerequisite for the best outcome but a perquisite for great work.

Book Two

The important thing is not to lie to yourself. He who lies to himself and listens to his own lies reaches a state in which he no longer recognizes truth either in himself or in others, and so he ceases to respect both himself and others. Having ceased to respect everyone, he stops loving, and then, in the absence of love, in order to occupy and divert himself, he abandons himself to passions and the gratification of coarse pleasures until his vices bring him down to the level of bestiality, and all on account of his being constantly false both to himself and to others. He who is false to himself is also the most likely to feel offended. After all, it is sometimes very gratifying to feel offended, is it not? A man may be perfectly well aware that no one has offended him, that he has imagined it all and put about a lie just for the sake of it, blown it out of all proportion so as to attract attention, deliberately picked on a word and made a mountain out of a molehill--he may very well realize all this, and yet be the very first to take offense, to the point of deriving enjoyment and pleasure from it, and so fall into a state of real animosity.

Do not lie to yourself.

There can be no virtue without immortality. - Ivan Karamazov

Existentialist have built their philosophy on the personality of Ivan Karamazov.