Leo Tolstoy on Veterans Day
1828–1910 Russia
← All quotes by Leo Tolstoy
4 quotes
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)
But just what this good patriotism is, no one explains.
Patriotism … for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish submission to those in power. … Patriotism is slavery.
Patriotism and Christianity (1894)
As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence — as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single individual.
A Letter to a Hindu (1908)