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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“Remember that there is only one important time and it is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.”

IfsKnowsPersonsImportantMomentsRememberSidesStandingPursuitPresent MomentOnly TimeDominionDealingsImportant PersonMost Important Person
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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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?”

IfsFeelsFirstsPersonsStatesFeelingsHappensAbleIndividualUnderstandingMy OwnForgetInfluenceConditionsIllusionLikesCarrieUnderstanding Things
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

IfsMenLifeGivingShouldLooksImportantMomentsNamesAdviceCenturyCeaseChanging Your LifeIf Then
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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“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral.”

IfsDoeMoralStupidGoodnessCleverCharmNonsenseDelusionHandsomeCleverness
Book:The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
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“If patriotism is good, then Christianity, which gives peace, is an idle dream, and the sooner this teaching is eradicated, the better. But if Christianity really gives peace, and if we really want peace, then patriotism is a leftover from barbarous times, which must not only not be evoked and taught, as we now do, but which must be eradicated by all means of preaching, persuasion, contempt, and ridicule. If Christianity is the truth, and if we wish to live in peace, then we must not only have no sympathy for the power of our country, but must even rejoice in its weakening and contribute to it.”

IfsWantGivingMeanCountryDreamWishChristianityTeachingTaughtOur CountryPatriotismContemptRejoicePreachingIdlePersuasionRidiculeWeakeningNo Sympathy
Author: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.”

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

IfsKnowsMindPersonsImportantDifferentWould BeRememberDiesHoursHalfOur LivesCenturyStupidBotherExistentialismBad ThingsHalf HoursMemento MoriHalf A CenturyMementoImportant Words
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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