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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“In our age the common religious perception of men is the consciousness of the brotherhood of man - we know that the well-being of man lies in the union with his fellow men. True science should indicate the various methods of applying this consciousness to life. Art should transform this perception into feeling.”

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Book:What is Art?:
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“Real art, like the wife of an affectionate husband, needs no ornaments. But counterfeit art, like a prostitute, must always be decked out. The cause of production of real art is the artist's inner need to express a feeling that has accumulated...The cause of counterfeit art, as of prostitution, is gain. The consequence of true art is the introduction of a new feeling into the intercourse of life... The consequences of counterfeit art are the perversion of man, pleasure which never satisfies, and the weakening of man's spiritual strength.”

MenNeedsArtRealFeelingsSpiritualArtistCausesPleasureWifeHusbandArt IsConsequenceGainsProductionsOriginalityIntroductionProstitutionIntercourseOrnamentsAffectionatePerversionCounterfeitWeakeningSpiritual StrengthNew Feelings
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“In the evolution of knowledge-mistaken and unnecessary beliefs are forced out and supplanted by truer and more necessary knowledge. So too in the evolution of feelings, which takes place by means of art. Lower feelings-less kind and less needed for the good of humanity-are forced out and replaced by kinder feelings which better serve us individually and collectively. This is the purpose of art.”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The artist of the future will live the ordinary life of a human being, earning his living by some kind of labour. He will strive to give the fruit of that supreme spiritual force which passes through him to the greatest number of people, because this conveying of the feelings that have been born in him to the greatest number of people is his joy and his reward. The artist of the future will not even understand how it is possible for an artist, whose joy consists in the widest dissemination of his works, to give these works only in exchange for a certain payment.”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“When a man sees a dying animal, horror comes over him: that which he himself is, his essence, is obviously being annihilated before his eyes--is ceasing to be. But when the dying one is a person, and a beloved person, then, besides a sense of horror at the annihilation of life, there is a feeling of severance and a spiritual wound which, like a physical wound, sometimes kills and sometimes heals, but always hurts and fears any external, irritating touch.”

MenPersonsSometimesFeelingsEyeSpiritualHurtAnimalDyingHorrorEssenceWoundsHealBelovedHis EyesAnnihilationIrritatingBeloved Person
Book:War and Peace (Vintage Classic Russians Series)
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“Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do... Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.”

MenWellsMeanArtIdeasFeelingsTogetherHumanityGamesIndividualEnergyPleasureEmotionProgressObjectsExpressionArt IsUnionsProductionsMysteriousWell BeingManifestationExcessIndispensableJoining
Book:Last Steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy
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“The feeling of patriotism - It is an immoral feeling because, instead of confessing himself a son of God . . . or even a free man guided by his own reason, each man under the influence of patriotism confesses himself the son of his fatherland and the slave of his government, and commits actions contrary to his reason and conscience.”

MenReasonFeelingsGovernmentActionInfluenceSonConscienceSlaveContraryCommitPatriotismPatriotImmoralFree ManScoundrelsConfessingFatherland
Book:I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
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“To destroy governmental violence, only one thing is needed: It is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism, which alone supports that instrument of violence, is a rude, harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling, and, above all, is immoral.”

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Book:I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
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“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.”

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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.”

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Book:Essays and Letters /by Leo Tolstoy ; Translated by Aylmer Maude
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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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“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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“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.”

MenHumansArtMatterFeelingsPleasurePerceptionArt IsHuman LifeReasonableOrgansAmusementSolace
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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“Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life.”

MenHumansHeartFeelingsNatureAnimalAnimal RightsHuman HeartNature And Animals
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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“Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression. Art is a human activity- that one man consciously by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that others are touched by these feelings and also experience them.”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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