Genuine Dostoevsky. The line is spoken by the elder Zosima to Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, Part One, Book II, chapter 2 (“The Old Buffoon”) — the novel Dostoevsky serialised in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. This exact English wording, though, is not Dostoevsky’s: it is the 1990 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and the sentence is almost always cut off mid–clause.
“A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth” A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him. — Father Zosima, in Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Part One, Book II, ch. 2; translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1990)
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Provenance
The source
Work
The Brothers Karamazov
Location
Part One, Book II, chapter 2 — “The Old Buffoon”
Speaker
The elder Zosima, addressing Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov
Translation
Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky, 1990
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.
Same passage, two translators
That is Constance Garnett’s wording, from the public-domain text at Project Gutenberg ↗. The version that circulates online — “comes to a point where he does not discern any truth” — is the later Pevear and Volokhonsky rendering, whose full sentence continues “…either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.”
Located the passage in the novel itself: the full Constance Garnett translation at Project Gutenberg ↗ carries it in Book II, “An Unfortunate Gathering,” chapter II, “The Old Buffoon,” spoken by Father Zossima to Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov.
Matched the popular wording to its translator: Wikiquote’s sourced Dostoyevsky page ↗ prints this exact sentence and credits it to the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (1990), p. 44.
Dated the translation: Wikipedia’s account of Pevear and Volokhonsky ↗ records that their Brothers Karamazov was accepted by North Point Press, a small San Francisco house, and went on to win a PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize.
Confirmed the novel’s own dates: Wikipedia’s article on the novel ↗ states it was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880, with the separate edition in 1880.
Two separate clocks run here. Dostoevsky’s Russian original (serialised 1879–1880) is long in the public domain, as is Constance Garnett’s English translation, which Project Gutenberg distributes freely ↗. But the specific English sentence quoted here is the 1990 Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, and a translation is its own copyrightable work — so this wording is in copyright. Quote the Garnett text if you need a freely reusable version.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What usually goes wrong
This one is not a fake — it is a real sentence from a real novel. What gets mangled is everything around it: who is speaking, who wrote the English, and where the sentence is supposed to stop.
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The speakerFather Zosima, not Dostoevsky in his own voice character, not author
The line is dialogue. In the text at Project Gutenberg ↗ it is the elder Zossima speaking to Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, who has just asked what he must do to gain eternal life. Dostoevsky wrote it; a monk in his novel says it. Both facts are true and quote cards keep only the first.
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The English wordingRichard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky uncredited translators
“Comes to a point where he does not discern any truth” is their 1990 rendering, credited as such on Wikiquote ↗. Garnett has “comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth”; other editions differ again. A Goodreads search ↗ returns several of these variants side by side, all filed simply under “Fyodor Dostoevsky” with no translator named.
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The sentenceTruncated mid-clause clipped
The quotation as it travels stops at “does not discern any truth.” Wikiquote’s full text ↗ shows the clause running on — “either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others” — and then to the point Zosima is actually building toward, about a self-deceiver being the first to take offence.
✓Dostoevsky wrote the thought and put it in Zosima’s mouth; Pevear and Volokhonsky wrote the English you have read. Cite The Brothers Karamazov ↗ — and name the translator.
Context
Why it mattered
The scene is almost comic before it turns serious. Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov — a buffoon, a drunk, a man who performs his own shamelessness — kneels before the revered elder Zosima and asks, more or less as a stunt, what he must do to gain eternal life. Zosima does not play along. He answers the question as though it were sincere, and tells him to stop lying to himself.
That is the move that gives the line its force. It is not general wisdom offered from a lectern; it is aimed at one specific man who has built a personality out of self-deception, and who is at that moment deceiving himself about why he is kneeling. Dostoevsky then lets Zosima follow the logic all the way down: lose the ability to tell truth from falsehood, and you lose self-respect; lose self-respect, and you stop being able to love.
A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offence.
Read the full story
The passage sits in Part One, Book II of the novel, the long gathering at the monastery where the Karamazov family assembles and immediately disgraces itself. Dostoevsky uses the setting to put his most disciplined character in a room with his least disciplined one.
The Brothers Karamazov was the last novel Dostoevsky completed. Its serialisation in The Russian Messenger ended in November 1880, and he died on 9 February 1881.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, essayist and journalist, widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists in world literature. His late fiction — Crime and Punishment, Demons, The Brothers Karamazov — is preoccupied with exactly the problem Zosima names here: what happens to a person who can no longer tell the truth from his own account of it. He died on 9 February 1881, months after finishing the serialisation of The Brothers Karamazov.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Cite this source
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990. Part One, Book II, chapter 2 ("The Old Buffoon"), p. 44. Originally serialized in The Russian Messenger, January 1879 – November 1880.
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