Quote of the day by Fyodor Dostoevsky: 'To fall in love does not mean to love. One can fall in love and still hate...' - A timeless lesson on understanding the difference between true love and attraction by the Russian novelist

Some feelings can become very difficult to separate from one another, especially when love, attraction, anger and obsession become mixed together. Fyodor Dostoevsky captured this conflict in his words that is the quote of the day: “But to fall in love does not mean to love. One can fall in love and still hate.” This quote is from Dostoevsky's 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov and these words come in it during an emotional confession by one of its main characters, Dmitri Karamazov.

In the book, Dmitri is talking to his brother Alyosha when he makes this distinction between what it means to fall in love and what truly loving someone means. He says these words while he is describing his complicated feelings for Grushenka, a woman he has become deeply obsessed with.

Meaning of the quote of the day

The first part of the quote makes a differentiation between the experience of falling in love from love itself. Falling in love can be sudden and overwhelming and it can be due to attraction and strong emotions rather than by a calm understanding of another person.


Dostoevsky then takes the thought in a darker direction by saying that someone can “still hate” while being in love. This reveals that for the him strong romantic feelings do not automatically remove anger, jealousy or feelings of resentment towards someone. A person can want someone intensely and still be emotions that pull them in the opposite direction.

The Brothers Karamazov

Published in 1880, The Brothers Karamazov follows three brothers, Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei, whose personalities and beliefs are very different. Their family relationships become entangled with questions of morality, guilt, faith and responsibility, as well as a murder mystery involving their father.

The novel is also one of Dostoevsky's deepest examinations into the human behaviour. The characters that are mentioned in it often hold conflicting ideas and emotions at the same time, making the book as much about their inner struggles as about the events taking place around them.

The quote comes from Book III, Chapter 3, titled 'The Confession of an Ardent Heart. In Verse.'

About Fyodor Dostoevsky: His philosophy and work

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in 1821 and died in the year 1881. He is often regarded by readers as one of the most influential Russian novelists and is known for writing about human psychology, morality and spirituality.

The way his life was had a major role to play in his own thinking style. He was arrested after becoming involved with a group influenced by radical political ideas and was sentenced to death. The sentence was reduced at the last moment, after which he was sent to Siberia to do several years of hard labour.

His major works include Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Notes from Underground and The Brothers Karamazov. In all of these books and even in his other works, Dostoevsky used to repeatedly examine questions about freedom, suffering, morality, faith and the choices that people make when faced with difficult circumstances. His philosophy was very closely connected to all of these ideas, but his novels rarely offered simple answers to the readers. Instead, he placed different beliefs and conflicting personalities against one another and allowed the characters to struggle with difficult questions.