Quote of the day by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “But how can you live and have no story to tell?”

“But how can you live and have no story to tell?”

Explanation: The quote has been borrowed from Dostoevsky’s short story White Nights and is a critique on a life spent only in contemplation, isolation or daydreaming rather than actually cultivating some lived experiences.

In the story, the narrator is a ‘lonely’ dreamer who mostly lives in his head amidst complex ideas and thoughts. It is only when he meets a woman, it strikes to him that he has no real-life stories because he rarely participated in the world around him.

In other words, the author carefully plays around a human tendency to ‘play it safe’ all the time. To avoid failure, one feels scared to take a risk, to prevent a heartbreak, one chooses to not go after love and to escape conflict, people feel it safe to not take a stand. While people are biologically living all the time, they often devoid their life of experiences where they can feel totally alive.

The author is also implying that one must stop seeing one’s life from the sidelines but rather make brave choices that puts them in the driving seat of their lives. 

Also, a life untouched by risk, emotions and connection leaves behind no impressions.

About the author: Fyodor Dostoevsky (born 1821) was a Russian novelist and short story writer whose deep dive into the psychology of the human mind had a monumental impact on the fiction of the 20th century and later.

His personal life was marked by tragic events, including mock execution, imprisonment in Siberia and illness. 

He is well known for his predictions on how Russian revolutionaries would behave if they came in power.

Among the literary figures of all times, he is known as the best psychologist who could describe the states of mind with utmost precision.

Having spent time in prison and facing the fear of execution (as he was a part of a rebel group trying to work against the establishment), Dostoevsky could deeply understand darker themes of life like guilt, grief, and fear of death.

His most celebrated works are Notes from the Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov.