215 quotes
I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain.
Confession (1882)
Art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen.
What is Art? (1897)
The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
War and Peace (1865)
The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.
What Is To Be Done? (1886)
God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.
God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter.
Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.
War and Peace (1865)
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.
War and Peace (1865)
A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words mean.
A Letter to a Hindu (1908)
The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgment and profession of the truth by each one of us.
The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894)
To be good and lead a good life means to give to others more than one takes from them.
The First Step (1892)
All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.
The Law of Love and the Law of Violence (1908)
If a poor person envies a rich person, he is no better than the rich person.
The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.
Confession (1882)
I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves, but by love.
What Men Live By (1881)
"Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be."
Anna Karenina (1875)
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
The Kreutzer Sonata (1889)
To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in undeserved sufferings.
War and Peace (1865)
The Churches as Churches have always been and cannot fail to be institutions not only alien to, but directly hostile towards, Christ's teaching.
The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894)
Division of labor is a justification for sloth.
Not only does the action of Governments not deter men from crimes; on the contrary, it increases crime by always disturbing and lowering the moral standard of society.
The Meaning of the Russian Revolution (1906)