# Quote — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime And Punishment

> Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery. If there’s the hundredth part of a false note in speaking the truth, it leads to a discord, and that leads to trouble. But if all, to the last note, is false in flattery, it is just as agreeable, and is heard not without satisfaction. It may be a coarse satisfaction, but still a satisfaction. And however coarse the flattery, at least half will be sure to seem true. That’s so for all stages of development and classes of society.

- Author: [Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky.md)
- Book: [Crime And Punishment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/crime-and-punishment.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky#Crime_and_Punishment_(1866)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/crime-and-punishment/nothing-in-the

## More from this book

> Accept suffering and achieve atonement through it — that is what you must do.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/crime-and-punishment/accept-suffering-and.md)

> If not reason, then the devil.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/crime-and-punishment/if-not-reason.md)

> The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/crime-and-punishment/the-more-cunning.md)