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Leo Tolstoy Quotes
1828–1910 Russia
Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy [Ле́в Никола́евич Толсто́й, usually rendered Leo Tolstoy, or sometimes Tolstoi] (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910) was a Russian writer, philosopher and social activist (social critic), whose novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are internationally praised classics of world literature. He was a major influence on the development of Christian anarchism and pacifism, contributing to such nonviolent resistance movements as those of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel.
Russia Academics Anarchists Aristocrats Educators Also known as: Leo Tolstoi, Leo, Count Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy, Lev Tolstoy, Tolstoy, Tolstoy, Leo
Random Leo Tolstoy quote
215 quotes
You will die — and it will all be over. You will die and find out everything — or cease asking.
War and Peace (1865)
Martin understood that his dream had come true; and that the Saviour had really come to him that day, and he had welcomed him.
Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)
History is the life of nations and of humanity. To seize and put into words, to describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single nation, appears impossible.
War and Peace (1865)
If only free men would not rely on that which has no power, and is always fettered — upon external aids; but would trust in that which is always powerful and free — the truth and its expression!
Patriotism and Christianity (1896)
Regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and avoid it as much as possible.
Soon he [Vronsky] felt rising in his soul a desire for desires — boredom.
Anna Karenina (1877)
He knew she was there by the joy and fear that overwhelmed his heart.
Anna Karenina (1875)
As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields.
One is ashamed to say how little is needed for all men to be delivered from those calamities which now oppress them; it is only needful not to lie.
Patriotism and Christianity (1896)
One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud!
Confession (1882)
They who have decided to dedicate their lives to spiritual perfection will never be dissatisfied or unhappy, because all that they want is in their power.
An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life—becoming a better person.
If you love a person without loving God, which is the goodness inside of him, then you plant the seeds for future disappointments and sufferings with this love.
A person has done evil, so another person, or a group of people, in order to fight this evil, cannot think of anything better than to create another evil, which they call punishment.
Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government.
The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal.
What is Art? (1897)
If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.
When you suffer, think not on how you can escape suffering, but concentrate your efforts on what kind of inner moral and spiritual perfection this suffering requires.
For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
War and Peace (1865)
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