Topic: FAO: Dostoevsky fans

Anonymous A started this discussion 5 years ago #101,526

Did he ever actually say "You can be sincere and still be stupid"? It's not an actual line from The Idiot (that I can tell).

Is this quote, in fact, just misattributed to old Dusty?

Anonymous B joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 8 minutes later[^] [v] #1,146,393

I have read his oeuvres, and cannot place that line, but I might have just forgotten it.

chill dog !!81dzJNNYL joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 3 minutes later, 11 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #1,146,394

I searched for "sincere" and "earnest" in The Idiot here and couldn't find anything. Nor can I find a source. I see it used as a subtitle on the cover of the book, though, like here.

(Edited 39 seconds later.)

Father Merrin !u5oFWxmY7U joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 3 hours later, 3 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,146,449

It's such a banal observation that without knowing how exactly it's supposed to have been phrased in Russian (I searched for my own translation of the quote and came up with nothing), it's impossible to search for. My instinct tells me it's not him, I don't think Dostoevsky would have bothered to write something like that. He was the greatest literary genius of his era and The Idiot is his 2nd greatest book in my opinion, after The Brothers Karamazov. There are innumerable quotable lines from it but something like this (about sincerity and idiocy) wouldn't have been highlighted, if he even did write it.

Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 2 minutes later, 3 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,146,450

You can be a Dostoevsky fan but still be stupid.

tteh !MemesToDNA (OP) replied with this 5 years ago, 3 weeks later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #1,155,395

@1,146,449 (Father Merrin !u5oFWxmY7U)
What's your own translation, out of curiosity? (I know enough Russian to say "exit", "cuddle", "hello", and "thanks".)
@1,146,393 (B)
@1,146,394 (chill dog !!81dzJNNYL)
Seems it's well attributed to him, but a bit of a mystery!
@previous (E)
Careful.

Sheila LaBoof joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 1 hour later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #1,155,427

сука блять

Father Merrin !u5oFWxmY7U joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 15 hours later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #1,155,605

@1,155,395 (tteh !MemesToDNA)

> What's your own translation, out of curiosity? (I know enough Russian to say "exit", "cuddle", "hello", and "thanks".)

"Человек может быть искренним, но всё равно тупым"

Slightly less offensive would be to change the last word from "тупым" to "глупым"

I'm still not convinced anything like this would be something Dostoevsky would write.

tteh !MemesToDNA (OP) replied with this 5 years ago, 33 minutes later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #1,155,606

@previous (Father Merrin !u5oFWxmY7U)
Cheers!

Looks like it was actually a Charles F Kettering quote. The earliest usage I've managed to find was 1959, in The Patent, Trade-mark, and Copyright Journal of Research and Education (Vol 3). This was driving me unreasonably mad. It's not even an interesting quote!

Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU joined in and replied with this 5 years ago, 8 minutes later, 3 weeks after the original post[^] [v] #1,155,607

@previous (tteh !MemesToDNA)
I never knew Charles F. Kettering was the pen name of Dostoevsky. You learn something new every day.

Minichan