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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is all the very nature of the soul. Love is life. All, all that I understand, I understand only because of love. All is bound up in love alone. Love is God and dying means for me a particle of love, to go back to the universal and eternal source of love.”

LoveHumansMayMeanSoulLove IsDyingDivineSourceEternalHatredUniversalBoundsOne LoveDivine LoveParticlesGod Is LoveHuman LoveAlone In LoveLove Is Life
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“At the approach of danger two voices speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it and the other, even more reasonable, says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger... better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.”

ThinkingMenFirstsHeartMeanTwoTurnsSpeakForceVoiceSubjectsDangerHe ManSolitudeEqualApproachPainfulPleasantReasonableYieldAvoiding
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“When an individual passes from one period of life to another a time comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but has to understand that although he has out-grown what before used to direct him, this does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and development of humanity.”

WayMeanDoeAgeUsedHumanityIndividualUnderstandingGrowthGoes OnDevelopmentPeriodsActivityDirectGuidanceExcitementReasonableCorresponding
Book:The Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy: A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What I Believe, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more: Lessons on What it Means to be a True Christian From the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of War and Peace & Anna Karenina (Including Letter to a Kind YouthandCorrespondences with Gandhi)
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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.”

KindMeanArtFeelingsPurposeHumanityBeliefEvolutionNeededReplacedUnnecessaryMistakenKinderPurpose Of Art
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state.”

IfsMenMeanStatesReasonLiteratureHalfConscienceContraryOur TimeOne Half
Book:The Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy: A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What I Believe, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more: Lessons on What it Means to be a True Christian From the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of War and Peace & Anna Karenina (Including Letter to a Kind YouthandCorrespondences with Gandhi)
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“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”

LoveLifeMeanDiesLove IsUnitedLove YouSourceReturnEternalInspirational LoveLife And LoveParticlesOnly LoveGod Is LoveLove And DeathLove Is LifeEyes And Love
Book:War and Peace: plus free audiobook
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“We are all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all invent means of deceiving each other. And when one sees the truth, what is one to do?”

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Book: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)
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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 time is fast approaching when to call a man a patriot will be the deepest insult you can offer him. Patriotism now means advocating plunder in the interest of the privileged classes of the particular State system into which we have happened to be born.”

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

MeanArtReasonHighestConsciousArt IsObjectivesUnconsciousSubjectiveWisestUniting
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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“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.”

MenHumansKindMeanArtFeelingsHandsCertainCausesActivityArt IsImpressionArtisticTouchedWorks Of ArtOne ManHuman ActivityReceiver
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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