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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“It would, therefore, seem obvious that patriotism as a feeling is bad and harmful, and as a doctrine is stupid. For it is clear that if each people and each State considers itself the best of peoples and States, they all live in a gross and harmful delusion.”

PeopleIfsStatesFeelingsSeemsClearStupidObviousDoctrineDelusionGross
Book:I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
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“In our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering, and that, consequently, this feeling - should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men.”

MenShouldMeanDoneFeelingsSufferingCausesMankindAvailableContraryRationalPatriotismPatrioticIrrationalUnnaturalBeing Done
Book:Essays and Letters /by Leo Tolstoy ; Translated by Aylmer Maude
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“The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes - love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and unjust.”

ThinkingMenLoveNeedsShouldHumansDoeImportantQualityKnownLeaderDoubtSpecialStupidHighestArmyBraveConvincedAbsenceContraryPitySufficientAttributesTendernessUnjustHumaneAbsentCommandersLove PoetryPhilosophicInquiringAbsent Minded
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Though it is possible to utter words only with the intention to fulfill the will of God, it is very difficult not to think about the impression which they will produce on men and not to form them accordingly. But deeds you can do quite unknown to men, only for God. And such deeds are the greatest joy that a man can experience.”

ThinkingMenGodFormJoyDifficultCan DoProduceIntentionDeedsImpressionGods WillDeeds And Words
Book:Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910
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“Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life.”

MenArtUniversalLiftsPersonal LifeWisestUniversal Life
Book:WHAT IS ART? & WHEREIN IS TRUTH IN ART? (Meditations on Aesthetics & Literature): On the Significance of Science and Art, Shakespeare and the Drama, The Works of Guy De Maupassant, A. Stockham'sTokology, Amiel's Diary, S. T. Seménov's Peasant Stories, Stop and Think!...
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“Great works of art are only great because they are accessible and comprehensible to everyone.”

ArtWorks Of ArtGreat Work
Book:The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs, Letters & Essays on Art, Religion and Politics: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, The Cossacks, Correspondences with Gandhi, The Kreutzer Sonata, Fables and Stories for Childrenand Many More
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“If a man's aspirations towards a righteous life are serious.. .if he earnestly and sincerely seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food, because, not to mention the excitement of the passions produced by such food, it is plainly immoral, as it requires an act contrary to moral feeling, i. e., killing - and is called forth only by greed.”

IfsMenFirstsFeelingsPassionAnimalMoralSeriousKillingGreedContraryExcitementAspirationRighteousImmoralSincerelyAbstinenceAnimal Food
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“It is horrible! It is not the suffering and the death of the animals that is horrible, but the fact that the man without any need for so doing crushes his lofty feeling of sympathy and mercy for living creatures and does violence to himself that he may be cruel. The first element of moral life is abstinence.”

MenNeedsFirstsMayDoeFactsFeelingsLife IsSufferingAnimalMoralViolenceHe ManCreaturesElementsMercyHorribleCrushLoftyLiving CreaturesAbstinenceMoral Life
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.”

PeopleMenMen And WomenEvery ManVocation
Book:The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs, Letters & Essays on Art, Religion and Politics: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, The Cossacks, Correspondences with Gandhi, The Kreutzer Sonata, Fables and Stories for Childrenand Many More
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“If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side! If it is not the right way, then show me another way; but if I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you.”

IfsKnowsWayHelpingShowsHomeSidesLosesSupportPathReadyWalkingHelp MeAccountabilityShow MeRight WayAnother WayStaggeringSupport YouWay Home
Book:Leo Tolstoy: Spiritual Writings
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“By patriotism is meant, not only spontaneous, instinctive love for one's own nation, and preference for it above all other nations, but also the belief that such love and preference are good and useful.”

BeliefNationsPatriotismSpontaneousPreference
Book:The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs, Letters & Essays on Art, Religion and Politics: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, The Cossacks, Correspondences with Gandhi, The Kreutzer Sonata, Fables and Stories for Childrenand Many More
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“Today, nobody sees, or wishes to see, that in our time the enslavement of the majority of men is based on money taxes, levied on land and otherwise, which are collected by government from the subjects.”

MenGovernmentTodayWishLandSubjectsTaxesMajorityOur TimeAnarchyEnslavement
Book:Church and State and Other Essays: Including Money; Man and Woman: Their Respective Functions; The Mother; A Second Supplement to the Kreutzer Sonata
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“The wrongfulness, the immorality of eating animal food has been recognized by all mankind during all the conscious life of humanity. Why, then have people generally not come to acknowledge this law? The answer is that the moral progress of humanity is always slow; but that the sign of true, not casual Progress, is in uninterruptedness and its continual acceleration. And one cannot doubt that vegetarianism has been progressing in this manner”

PeopleHas BeensLawHumanityAnswersAnimalMoralDoubtProgressMankindEatingConsciousAcknowledgeVeganCasualVegetarianismImmoralityEating AnimalsAccelerationAnimal Food
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Flesh eating is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to moral feeling: By killing, man suppresses in himself, unnecessarily, the highest spiritual capacity, that of sympathy and pity towards living creatures like himself and by violating his own feelings becomes cruel." "As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields.”

MenLongFeelingsSpiritualMoralCreaturesEatingHighestCapacityPerformancesKillingContraryFleshPityVegetarianVeganImmoralVegetarianismBattlefieldsLiving CreaturesVegetarian HealthSlaughterhousesFlesh Eating
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling - killing.”

IfsLifeFirstsUseFeelingsDeathAnimalMoralPerformancesKillingSeekingContraryVegetarianGood LifeImmoralVegetarianismVegetarian HealthVegetarian FoodVegan FoodAnimal Food
Book:Leo Tolstoy: Letters and Papers
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“The vegetarian movement ought to fill with gladness the souls of those who have at heart the realization of God's kingdom upon earth, not because vegetarianism itself is such an important step towards the realization of this kingdom (all real steps are equally important or unimportant), but because it serves as a criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of man is genuine and sincere.”

KnowsMenHeartImportantRealSoulEarthMoralStepsMovementOughtPerfectionPursuitGenuineKingdomsRealizationSincereVegetarianCriteriaVegetarianismUnimportantGladnessMoral Perfection
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“So long as people do not consider all men as their brothers and do not consider human life as the most sacred thing, which rather than destroy they must consider it their first and foremost duty to support; that is so long as people do not behave towards one another in a religious manner, they will always ruin one another's lives for the sake of personal gain.”

PeopleMenFirstsHumansLongReligiousSupportBrotherDutyMoralityEthicsGainsSacredSakeRuinsHuman LifeBehaveSacred ThingsPersonal Gain
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“You can't imagine what a pleasure this complete laziness is to me: not a thought in my brain- you might send a ball rolling through it!”

MightFunnyPleasureBrainImagineBallsLazinessRollingSlothIndolence
Book:The Complete Novels of Leo Tolstoy in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, The Cossacks, The Death of Ivan Ilyich... (Including Biographies of the Author)
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“It is this law of love and its recognition as a rule of conduct in all our relations with friends, enemies and offenders which must inevitably bring about the complete transformation of the existing order of things, not only among Christian nations, but among all the peoples of the globe”

LoveChristianLawOrderNationsEnemyRelationTransformationRecognitionGlobesOffendersChristian NationFriend Enemy
Book:The law of love and the law of violence
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