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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“He felt that he could not turn aside from himself the hatred of men, because that hatred did not come from his being bad (in that case he could have tried to be better), but from his being shamefully and repulsively unhappy. He knew that for this, for the very fact that his heart was torn with grief, they would be merciless to him. He felt that men would crush him as dogs strangle a torn dog yelping with pain. He knew that his sole means of security against people was to hide his wounds from them”

PeopleGrief
Book:ANNA KARENINA
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“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?”

PeopleLifeHappinessHeart Of A Man
Book:Семейное счастие
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“What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time.”

PeopleMayLongHappensCareAgeLastsFoundIndividualLosesAttentionChildhoodConditionsYouthLong TimeStandardsHappeningsMiseryWestEastOccupationDistractionAdolescenceManhoodSuitableSenselessness
Book:I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
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“The idea, shared by many, that life is a vale of tears, is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority, the idea to which youth and health and riches incline you, that life is a place of entertainment. Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.”

PeopleIfsLooksIdeasRealHardLife IsJoySufferingDealsObjectsYouthTearsBearsMajorityEntertainmentRichesLook UpBeing RealDefiniteInclinePersonal Happiness
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.”

PeopleShouldFirstsPersonsSeemsCarePurposeExistenceImpossibleProudMajorityCeaseEducatedHeightMeaning Of LifeDiscoveringGreat Heights
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Tell people that war is an evil, and they will laugh; for who does not know it? Tell them that patriotism is an evil, and most of them will agree, but with a reservation. "Yes," they will say, "wrong patriotism is an evil; but there is another kind, the kind we hold." But just what this good patriotism is, no one explains.”

PeopleKnowsKindDoeWarEvilLaughingAgreeReservations
Book:Essays, Letters, Miscellanies. [Edited by Nathan Haskell Dole]
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“The workmen's revolution, with the terrors of destruction and murder, not only threatens us, but we have already been living upon its verge during the last thirty years, and it is only by various cunning devices that we have been postponing the crisis. The hatred and contempt of the oppressed people are increasing, and the physical and moral strength of the richer classes are decreasing: the deceit which supports all this is wearing out, and the rich classes have nothing wherewith to comfort themselves.”

PeopleYearsHas BeensLastsMoralClassSupportRichRevolutionComfortDestructionHatredMurderCrisisTerrorVariousThirtyDeceitDevicesContemptOppressedCunningThirty YearsVergeWorkmenPostponingMoral Strength
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. "To establish Anarchy." "Anarchy will be instituted." But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require protection from governmental power, and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power.”

PeopleThinkingOrderViolenceConditionsRevolutionAuthorityProtectionAshamedAnarchyMistakenAnarchistAssertionNegationMental Power
Book:Social Evils and Their Remedy
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“People continued regardless of all that leads man forward to try to unite the incompatibles:;: the virtue of love, and what is opposed to love, namely, the restraining of evil by violence. And such a teaching, despite its inner contradiction, was so firmly established that the very people who recognize love as a virtue accept as lawful at the same time an order of life based on violence and allowing men not merely to torture but even to kill one another.”

PeopleMenTryingOrderEvilAcceptingVirtueViolenceTeachingDespiteTortureContradictionAllowingRestraining
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“At moments of departure and a change of life, people capable of reflecting on their actions usually get into a serious state of mind. At these moments they usually take stock of the past and make plans for the future.”

PeopleMindStatesMomentsActionPastPlansSeriousCapableLife ChangingState Of MindReflectingDeparture
Book:War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
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“Slavery, you know, is nothing else than the unwilling labor of many. Therefore to get rid of slavery it is necessary that people should not wish to profit by the forced labor of others and should consider it a sin and a shame. But they go and abolish the external form of slavery and arrange so that one can no longer buy and sell slaves, and they imagine and assure themselves that slavery no longer exists, and do not see or wish to see that it does, because people still want and consider it good and right to exploit the labor of others.”

PeopleKnowsWantShouldDoeStillsFormWishSinImagineLaborShameSlaverySellsSlaveProfitExploitsUnwillingAbolish
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“I understood, not with my intellect but with my whole being, that no theories of the rationality of existence or of progress could justify such an act; I realized that even if all the people in the world from the day of creation found this to be necessary according to whatever theory, I knew that it was not necessary and that it was wrong. Therefore, my judgments must be based-on what is right and necessary and not on what people say and do; I must judge not according to progress but according to my own heart.”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“If people lacked the capacity to receive the thoughts of the men who preceded them and to pass on to others their own thoughts, men would be like wild beasts. And if men lacked this other capacity of being infected by art, people would be almost more savage still, and, above all, more separated from and more hostile to one another. Therefore the activity of art is a most important one, as important as the activity of speech itself and as generally diffused.”

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Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Slavery results from laws, laws are made by governments, and, therefore people can only be freed from slavery by the abolition of governments.... And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part.”

PeopleMenMadeSelfGovernmentLawResultsHonestInstitutionsSlaveryImmoralHonest ManAbolition
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.”

PeopleGivingHumansKindHas BeensFeelingsSpiritualJoyArtistCertainForceBornHuman BeingsNumbersOrdinaryFruitRewardsStriveSupremeLabourEarningPaymentOrdinary LifeConveyingDissemination
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Nothing prevents our denying life by suicide. well then, kill yourself, and you won't discuss. If life displeases you, kill yourself! You live, and cannot understand the meaning of life - then finish it, and do not fool about in life, saying and writing that you do not understand it. You have come into good company where people are contented and know what they are doing; if you find it dull and repulsive - go away!”

PeopleIfsKnowsWritingWellsCompanyFoolSuicideMeaning Of LifeDullGoing AwayGood CompanyKilling Yourself
Book:A Confession: Easyread Edition
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“True art and true science possess two unmistakable marks: the first, an inward mark, which is this, that the servitor of art and science will fulfil his vocation, not for profit but with self- sacrifice; and the second, an external sign, his productions will be intelligible to all the people whose welfare he has in view.”

PeopleFirstsArtTwoSelfViewsSacrificeMarkProfitProductionsWelfareInwardVocationSelf SacrificeArt And Science
Book:On the Significance of Science and Art
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“In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.”

PeopleWarGovernmentPeaceInterestLibertySuccessfulIndependentLibertarianAnti WarAntiwarPeace WarGreat WarNo WarPerniciousMake Peace Not WarPeace Not WarGreat LibertarianAnti GovernmentHatching
Book:Essays, letters, miscellanies
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“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”

PeopleInspirationalMayBookIdeasCountryDoneUseHappinessEasyPossibilityQuietNeighborContentmentAccustomedMusic LoveJust Be HappyKey To HappinessAlways Be HappyYou Make Me HappySecludedThe Wild NatureFound HappinessBeing ContentLove Life HappinessLife Love And Happiness
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy (Illustrated)
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“All the stories and descriptions of that time without exception peak only of the patriotism, self-sacrifice, despair, grief, and heroism of the Russians. But in reality it was not like that...The majority of the people paid no attention to the general course of events but were influenced only by their immediate personal interests.”

PeopleSelfStoriesRealityCoursesInterestGriefAttentionSacrificeEventsDespairPaidMajorityDescriptionExceptionHeroismSelf SacrificePersonal Interest
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the greater the number of people he is connected with, the more power he has over other people, the more obvious is the predestination and inevitability of his every action.”

PeopleMenActionSocialNumbersGreaterHigherObviousConnectedLaddersInevitabilityPredestination
Book:War and Peace: Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
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“Nowadays, as before, the public declaration and confession of Orthodoxy is usually encountered among dull-witted, cruel and immoral people who tend to consider themselves very important. Whereas intelligence, honesty, straightforwardness, good-naturedness and morality are qualities usually found among people who claim to be non-believers.”

PeopleImportantFoundQualityHonestyMoralityClaimsBelieverDullConfessionDeclarationImmoralOrthodoxyNon Believer
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Indeed, ask every man separately whether he thinks it laudable and worthy of a man of this age to hold a position from which he receives a salary disproportionate to his work; to take from the people--often in poverty--taxes to be spent on constructing cannon, torpedoes, and other instruments of butchery, so as to make war on people with whom we wish to be at peace, and who feel the same wish in regard to us; or to receive a salary for devoting one's whole life to constructing these instruments of butchery, or to preparing oneself and others for the work of murder.”

PeopleThinkingMenFeelsWarWholeAgeAsksWishPovertyPositionTaxesMurderRegardInstrumentsOneselfWorthyWhole LifeEvery ManPreparingSalaryCannonsButcheryTorpedoes
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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