“Don't seek God in temples. He is close to you. He is within you. Only you should surrender to Him and you will rise above happiness and unhappiness.”
“There can be only one permanent revolution- a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man.”
Source: Pamphlets. Translated from the Russian
“It is possible to live only as long as life intoxicates us; once we are sober we cannot help seeing that it is all a delusion, a stupid delusion.”
“And whatever people might say about the time having come when young people must arrange their future for themselves, she could not believe it any more than she could believe that loaded pistols could ever be the best toys for five-year-old children.”
Source: ANNA KARENINA – Two Unabridged Translations in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): The Greatest Romantic Tragedy of All Times from the Renowned Author of War and Peace & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including Biographies of the Author)
“The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear.”
“Seize the moment of happiness... love and be loved.”
Source: War and Peace
“Childhood candor... shall I ever find you again?”
“Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and all the agonies of the soul, but for all time his tormenting tragedy is, and will be, the tragedy of the bedroom.”
“We live in this world like a child who enters a room where a clever person is speaking. The child did not hear the beginning of the speech, and he leaves before the end; and there are certain things which he hears but does not understand”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“When joy disappears, look for your mistake”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“If a man does not work at necessary and good things, then he will work at unnecessary and stupid things”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough?”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“Read less, study less, but think more”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“The chief cause of unhappiness in married life is that people think that marriage is sex attraction, which takes the form of promises and hopes and happiness - a view supported by public opinion and by literature. But marriage cannot cause happiness. Instead, it is always torture, which man has to pay for satisfying his sex urge.”
“Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“People jump back and forth in pursuit of pleasures only because they see the emptiness of their lives more clearly than they do the emptiness of whichever new entertainment attracts them.”
“A person who has spoiled his stomach will criticize his meal saying that the food is bad; the same thing happens with people who are not satisfied with their lives”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“Very often, all the activity of the human mind is directed not in revealing the truth, but in hiding the truth”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“People involve themselves in countless activities which they consider to be important, but they forget about one activity which is more important and necessary than any other, and which includes all other things: the improvement of their soul”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Think: what do you work at?”
“When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time”
“What is important is not the length of life, but the depth of life. What is important is not to make life longer, but to take your soul out of time, as every sublime act does.”
“To say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will continue burning as long as you live.”
Source: The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories
“I prefer a good pair of boots to Shakespeare.”
“"A real work of art destroys, in the consciousness of the receiver, the separation between himself and the artist."”
Source: 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
“Death destroys the body, as the scaffolding is destroyed after the building is up and finished. And he whose building is up rejoices at the destruction of the scaffolding and of the body.”
Source: An Anthology
“Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.”
Source: The Kingdom of God Is Within You: Easyread Edition
“Many people have ideas on how others should change; few people have ideas on how they should change.”
“Grow spiritually and help others to do so. It is the meaning of life.”
“By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.”
“The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking, while still in bed or while walking.”
Source: Translations from the Russian
“If people tell you that
you should live your life preparing for the future, do not believe
them. Real Life is found only in the present.”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.”
Source: My Religion
“If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only ONE thing: you can become better yourself.”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“I now understand that my welfare is only possible if I acknowledge my unity with all the people of the world without exception.”
Source: I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
“The key to success in life is using the good thoughts of wise people.”
“Everyone wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change himself.”
“Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling.”
Source: 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!...
“Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about.”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“A new conception of life cannot be imposed on men; it can only be freely assimilated. And it can only be freely assimilated in two ways: one spiritual and internal, the other experimental and external.”
Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You
“The earth is the general and equal possession of all humanity and therefore cannot be the property of individuals.”
Source: A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
“Love does not exist. There exists the physical need for intercourse,
and the rational need for a mate in life”
“Memento mori - remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die-what makes this any different from a half hour?”
“If you want to be happy, try only to please God, not people.”
Source: Wise Thoughts for Every Day: On God, Love, the Human Spirit, and Living a Good Life
“Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.”
Source: 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!...
“The idea of beauty is the fundamental idea of everything. In the world we see only distortions of the fundamental idea, but art, by imagination, may lift itself to the height of this idea. Art is therefore akin to creation.”
Source: What is Art?:
“Is it possible to say what one really feels?”
Source: The complete works of Lyof N. Tolstoi
“At one time,' Golenishchev continued, either not observing or not willing to observe that both Anna and Vronsky wanted to speak, 'at one time a freethinker was a man who had been brought up in the conception of religion, law, and morality, who reached freethought only after conflict and difficulty. But now a new type of born freethinkers has appeared, who grow up without so much as hearing that there used to be laws of morality, or religion, that authorities existed. They grow up in ideas of negation in everything - in other words, utter savages.”
“For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
Source: War and Peace: Designed to be Read as a Modern Novel
“Where there is a man who does not labor because another is compelled to work for him, there slavery is.”
Source: Church and State and Other Essays: Including Money; Man and Woman: Their Respective Functions; The Mother; A Second Supplement to the Kreutzer Sonata
