Thread: this Dostoyevsky quote please?

My friend wants to get this tattooed in Russian
"to live without hope is to cease to live"
please can anyone translate this in 100% accuracy so she doesn't have a huge mistake on her wrist forever? Thanks and appreciated

Are you sure it is a Dostoyevsky quote?

Which book is it from?

I dunno if it was written in one of his books, it may have been one of the things he himself said that became a famous saying or something.

Originally Posted by delirium

I dunno if it was written in one of his books, it may have been one of the things he himself said that became a famous saying or something.

I am sort of a fan of Dostoyevsky, but I don't know this "quote". It is not a famous saying, definitely.

Originally Posted by Оля

I am sort of a fan of Dostoyevsky, but I don't know this "quote". It is not a famous saying, definitely.

Olya, you know that I ALWAYS try and defer to you when it comes to things like this; however, if you Google just the line, "to live without hope is to cease to live" you will get a number of results all with the same answer. That this saying is attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky AND even books that contain this quote are attributed to him. HOWEVER, I did not see one that had WHEN or WHERE he said it.

Looks like this quotation is not popular anmong Russians.

my bad, I didn't mean a really famous quote like "I think therefore I am." I was just trying to get it across that perhaps he said it instead of it being in a book and is famous enough to be on the internet when you google it lol

I don't know where she found the quote she just said she liked the sound of the phrase. the fact that the internet claims that Dostoyevsky said it made it even better since she's a huge fan. personally I think it's a silly idea. word tattoos in general, I don't get them but oh well. she has her heart set on it. she doesn't know anyone who speaks Russian and she actually wanted to use inaccurate babelfish so I said I'd look around for a nicer translation cause online translators really are horrible and to put that forever on you is just a stupid idea.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Olya, you know that I ALWAYS try and defer to you when it comes to things like this; however, if you Google just the line, "to live without hope is to cease to live" you will get a number of results all with the same answer. That this saying is attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky AND even books that contain this quote are attributed to him. HOWEVER, I did not see one that had WHEN or WHERE he said it.

Rockzmom, if the phrase is a google hit, and especially not in the native language of the one who "said" that, it doesn't mean yet that it really is his famous saying. It-ogo is right, this "quotation", however, is not popular among Russians, and I hardly can recall in which book Dostoyevsky could say that (and I read many of them).

Originally Posted by delirium

she doesn't know anyone who speaks Russian and she actually wanted to use inaccurate babelfish so I said I'd look around for a nicer translation cause online translators really are horrible and to put that forever on you is just a stupid idea.

Online translation often is inacceptable for anything. Here we can provide some variants of translation of this phrase back from English to Russian but it will hardly match what Dostoevsky said (if he did). Dostoevsky's language often is fancy and I can't even guess what was in the original.

Here is one of the possible translations:
Жить без надежды - значит умирать.

Originally Posted by delirium

I don't know where she found the quote she just said she liked the sound of the phrase. the fact that the internet claims that Dostoyevsky said it made it even better since she's a huge fan. personally I think it's a silly idea. word tattoos in general, I don't get them but oh well. she has her heart set on it. she doesn't know anyone who speaks Russian and she actually wanted to use inaccurate babelfish so I said I'd look around for a nicer translation cause online translators really are horrible and to put that forever on you is just a stupid idea.

delirium,
I agree with you 1,000% about this whole tattoo idea. At least she has selected a nice phrase and not one from say the Twilight Series like so many girls were last year!

As a mom... here are my two cents (which of course you did not ask for, just like a mom ).

Be very calm and in your nice caring voice let your friend know that you went on a Russian forum to get the proper Russian translation of her phrase. And, in doing so you learned from some very nice people who are big fans of Dostoyevsky that they did not even know of the phrase and that it may not even be from him as no one could trace it back to him.

And, that if she REALLY wants that phrase for her tattoo in Russian, she should do some research FIRST and find out if Dostoyevsky actually said it.

IF, she just likes the phrase, she can STILL have it for her tattoo, just in English and that way if Dostoyevsky DID NOT say it, she is covered and not making some BIG mistake as she will have this forever and it would be very sad if she found out ten years from now that he did not say it and it was some American poet who did and she has it in Russian on her wrist! .

This way, you are supporting her in her wish for the tattoo without actually agreeing with her choice to do so AND the two of you don't get into a big fight over it AND you are helping her to not make a big mistake all at the same time.

Hope that this unsolicited advice helps!

Более полный вариант этой цитаты из Достоевского на английском звучит так:
http://christianquoter.blogspot.com/200 ... chive.html

Totally without hope one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness. It is no accident that above the entrance to Dante's hell is the inscription: "Leave behind all hope, you who enter here." --Fedor Dostoevski (1821-1881)

Well, it definitely is not Dostoyevsky's famous saying in Russia.
I think the most "appropriate" novel for such a discourse about living with or without hope is "The House of the Dead" (Dostoyevsky's memoirs about his time in Siberian prison). This is what I found there and what more or less has something in common with the "quotation" Звездочет provided above:

...арестант, о котором я уже упоминал и который бросился с кирпичом на майора, вероятно, тоже был из отчаявшихся, из тех, кого покинула последняя надежда; а так как совершенно без надежды жить невозможно, то он и выдумал себе исход в добровольном, почти искусственном мученичестве. Он объявил, что он бросился на майора без злобы, а единственно желая принять муки. И кто знает, какой психологический процесс совершился тогда в душе его! Без какой-нибудь цели и стремления к ней не живет ни один жив человек. Потеряв цель и надежду, человек с тоски обращается нередко в чудовище... Цель у всех наших была свобода и выход из каторги.

The most famous saying of Dostoyevsky in Russia is: Красота спасет мир (Beauty will save the world).

Originally Posted by Оля

The most famous saying of Dostoyevsky in Russia is: Красота спасет мир (Beauty will save the world).

Красота — страшная сила. Красота требует жертв. Красота спасет мир. Как это: страшная сила, требующая жертв, спасет мир? (не мое)
Извините за оффтоп. (: