Leo Tolstoy, Война и мир Quotes

You see, if you take pains and learn in order to get a reward, the work will seem hard; but when you work... if you love your work, you will find your reward in that.

As long as there are slaughter houses there will always be battlefields.

My life had come to a sudden stop. I was able to breathe, to eat, to drink, to sleep. I could not, indeed help doing so; but there was no real life in me.

I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.

To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.

A man's every action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds him and by his own body.

There are such repulsive faces in the world.

If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.

She had no need to ask why he had come. She knew as certainly as if he had told her that he was here to be where she was.

It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

The goal of our life should not be to find joy in marriage, but to bring more love and truth into the world.

The only purpose of education is freedom; the only method is experience.

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

Everything intelligent is so boring.

How important the concept of God is, and how instead of valuing what has been given us, we with light hearts spurn it because of absurdities that have been attached to it.

It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Think: what do you work at?

In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?

Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.

From the self-confidence with which he spoke no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.

You will die and it will all be over. You will die and find out everything or cease asking.

Man recognizes that he will not die, only when he recognizes that he was never born, but always has been, is, and will be.

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.

I feel that I am entitled to my share of lightheartedness and there is nothing wrong with enjoying one's self simply, like a boy.

He had heard that women often love plain ordinary men, but he did not believe it, because he judged by himself and he could only love beautiful mysterious exceptional women.

In infinite time, in infinite matter, in infinite space, is formed a bubble organism, and that bubble lasts a while and bursts, and that bubble is Me.

God forgive me everything!' she said, feeling the impossibility of struggling.

Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.

Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself. Whether we shall be the happiest or the wretchedest of people--that's in your hands.

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.

To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can't eat it.

Violence produces only something resembling justice, but it distances people from the possibility of living justly, without violence.

By digging into our souls, we often dig up what might better have remained there unnoticed." Alexis Alexandrovich

The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.

Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere.

The simplest and shortest ethical precept is to be served as little as possible . . . and to serve others as much as possible.

Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.

Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible.

Love is the only way to rescue humanity from all ills.

All that day she had had the feeling that she was playing in the theatre with actors better than herself and that her poor playing spoiled the whole thing.

He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has gathered , with difficulty recognizing the beauty for which he picked and ruined it.

History would be a wonderful thing – if it were only true.

One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love.

I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.

The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't gold

There are no conditions to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.

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.

Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling.

Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment, its wars

I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven't I?