Attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky
«"If God does not exist, everything is permitted."»
Misattributed
Verdict
It is not in Fyodor Dostoevsky's work
The formula does not appear in this form in The Brothers Karamazov. In Book II, ch. VI, Miusov summarises an idea of Ivan's: if faith in immortality were destroyed in mankind, 'everything would be permitted', even cannibalism; later Rakitin, Dmitri and Smerdyakov return to 'everything is permitted'. The condensed sentence spread in the twentieth century, above all after Sartre used it in Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946).
What they did say
Verified words of Fyodor Dostoevsky
«Man is a mystery. It must be solved, and if you spend your whole life solving it, do not say you have wasted your time; I occupy myself with this mystery because I want to be a man.»
Carta a su hermano Mijaíl, 16 de agosto de 1839 (Собрание сочинений в 15 томах, t. 15, carta n.º 10). Tenía diecisiete años.
«Life is a gift, life is happiness; every minute might have been an age of happiness.»
Carta a su hermano Mijaíl escrita en la fortaleza de Pedro y Pablo, 22 de diciembre de 1849, horas después del simulacro de ejecución (t. 15, carta n.º 37).
«Brother! I have not lost heart or fallen in spirit. Life is life everywhere; life is in ourselves and not in what is outside.»
Misma carta del 22 de diciembre de 1849 (t. 15, carta n.º 37).