Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Leo Tolstoy

Quote by Leo Tolstoy

Work

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories

This compilation includes the novella 'The Kreutzer Sonata', which is a profound exploration of the complexities of human relationships and the nature of art, alongside other short stories that delve into various themes and characters. more

Author

Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer and thinker, a prominent representative of 19th-century Russian literature. His works deeply revealed social contradictions and human nature, and had a profound impact on the world. more

You May Also Like

“Yes, there is a conspiracy, indeed there are a great number of conspiracies, all tripping each other up... The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theories is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in the conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy, or the grey aliens, or the twelve-foot reptiloids from another dimension that are in control, the truth is far more frightening; no-one is in control, the world is rudderless.”

Self AwarenessSelf DeceptionSuperiority ComplexCultismCryptozoologyConspiracism
Author:Alan Moore
Create image

“We all love to think of excuses for why people who have what we want are somehow different from us: They were born into money. They are more attractive. Their life has been easier. They've gotten lucky. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that is a cop-out. There is no difference between you and the people you see achieving extraordinary things. They aren't special. But there's one thing for sure they've figured out: They don't let the world around them derail their dreams. They've learned to navigate the sky, to accept the weather as it comes, and to keep moving toward their goals no matter what. At some point they got sick and tired of worrying about what everybody else thought and just forced themselves to get to work. They are laser focused on waking up every day and proving, over and over through their actions, that they are worthy and deserving of the vision they have for their life. Everyday that you allow your fear of somebody else's opinion, stress over friendships, or concern about how someone will react to prevent you from making the phone call, filling out the application, working on the business plan, starting the diet, or putting in the effort, you'r holding yourself back. You're robbing yourself of your potential. You're standing while life moves on around you.”

Inspirational Quotes
Book:The Let Them Theory
Create image

“To a friend, in an unguarded moment, he [Maxim Gorky, 1932] declared his ambition: simply to portray the world and man as they were, without the myth of love, ‘repudiating noting, praising nothing’; repudiation was unjust, while praise was premature—‘for we live in chaos and ourselves are fragments of chaos.’ He compared his desire with Einstein, ‘trying to alter radically our representation of the universe.”

PhilosophyHistoryIllusionChaosSoviet UnionSelf DeceptionDisillusionEinsteinSocialist RealismGorky
Book:Stormy Petrel: The Life and Work of Maxim Gorky
Create image

“The ones to fear are those who cannot realize it: the ones who just see the structure and bind themselves to it because they are otherwise afraid. They look at the structure, and they just see no other way. They cannot seek anything beyond it or do not want to. Yet, they will also vehemently deny that they are unable to venture beyond the structure and castigate others they perceive to have that inability so as to make themselves feel superior. They will even delude themselves into assuming that they are free of structural influence and will violently oppose any who say otherwise. They will say that the structures are a pragmatic necessity for social cohesion, but that they, even as willing participants in it, remain capable of acknowledging external terms and associations. They just choose not to—that’s the line they go with. They choose the structure for a lack of any better alternative and will not go without one. Perhaps they are naïve, in that sense, and it is easy for them to believe that those who seek to negate their structures are either unscrupulous, foolish, or ego-driven.”

InsecurityIndividualismSuperioritySelf DeceptionSocial StructureSocial Cohesion
Book:trenches parallax leapfrog
Create image

“Some people in my position would now have felt rather crestfallen, and would have begun to think that they had made a very foolish mistake. Not the faintest misgiving of any kind troubled me. I did not feel in the slightest degree depreciated in my own estimation. And even now, after a lapse of three hours, my mind remains, I am happy to say, in the same calm and hopeful condition.”

HumorousStupidityEgotismSelf DeceptionConfirmation Bias
Book:Biter Bit and Other Stories
Create image

“Ah, among the unhappiest blunders a man makes is this, that he childishly misjudges the value of the gifts that nature bestows on him most easily, and, contrariwise, considers most precious the endowments that come hardest. The precious stone buried in the earth's entrails, the pearl hidden in the ocean depths—these are what people regard as the greatest treasures; but they would look down on them if nature strewed them underfoot like pebbles and seashells. We are casual about our own excellences; we try to deceive ourselves about out weaknesses so long that we end up taking them for eminent virtues. Once, after a concert by Paganini, when I confronted the master with passionate praises for his violin playing, he interrupted me with these words: 'But today how did you like my bows, my genuflections?”

FollySelf DeceptionStrengths And Weaknesses
Book:Complete Poems
Create image