Leo Tolstoy, Война и мир Quotes
If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed.
Suddenly I heard the words of Christ and understood them, and life and death ceased to seem to me evil, and instead of despair I experienced happiness and the joy of life undisturbed by death.
Religious people are guided in their activities not by the consequences of their actions, but by the consciousness of the destination of their lives.
For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.
Christian love comes from the understanding that there is a unity of divine origins in oneself and in other people, and not only in people, but in all living things.
... in marriage the great thing was love, and that with love one would always be happy, for happiness rests only on oneself.
Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own.
He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light.
Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.
I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be. -Dolly
He liked to fish; he seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation.
There will be today, there will be tomorrow, there will be always, and there was yesterday, and there was the day before.
There is only one time that is important -- NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time hat we have any power.
Men are so accustomed to maintaining external order by violence that they cannot conceive of life being possible without violence.
You can't imagine what a pleasure this complete laziness is to me: not a thought in my brain- you might send a ball rolling through it!
The epitaph that I would write for history would say: I conceal nothing. It is not enough not to lie. One should strive not to lie in a negative sense by remaining silent.
Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won't come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn.
The possibility of killing one's self is a safety valve. Having it, man has no right to say life is unbearable.
Man is meant for happiness and this happiness is in him, in the satisfaction of the daily needs of his existence.
Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about.
Can it be that I have overlooked something, that there is something which I have failed to understand? Is it not possible that this state of despair is common to everyone?
We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams.
Some mathematician, I believe, has said that true pleasure lies not in the discovery of truth, but in the search for it.
The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.
The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal.
Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth.
Loving the same man or woman all your life, why, that's like supposing the same candle could last you all your life