Tolstoy Quotes

Tolstoy Quote of the day

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

I felt a wish never to leave that room - a wish that dawn might never come, that my present frame of mind might never change.

And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect.

He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he had plucked, in which it was difficult for him to trace the beauty that had made him pick and so destroy it

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.

Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.

In the post-Warhol era a single gesture such as uncrossing one's legs will have more significance than all the pages in War and Peace.

I agree with the Lev Tolstoy quote completely, but I also feel like there's more to it. What is a happy family and an unhappy family? We're probably both of those things at the same time.

[Lev] Tolstoy is not a boy-writer. He's a grown-up. And [Fedor] Doestoeivski is not a boy-writer.

Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts, , actions! They are all but grains of sand

But that's the whole aim of civilization: to make everything a source of enjoyment.

What better time is there in our lives than when the two best of virtues-innocent gaiety and a boundless yearning for affection-are our sole objects of pursuit?

I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

Nothing, ' wrote Tolstoy, 'can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.

Society in itself is no great harm, but unsatisfied social aspirations are a bad and ugly business. We must certainly accept, and we will.

Blessed are the peacemakers

The same Sermon on the Mount that influenced Tolstoy to write “The Kingdom of God is Within You”, inspired me to a great extent in my work “Principia Humanitas”.

Only a handful of individuals in human history can be truly hailed as Christians, such as Tolstoy, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rumi, Martin Luther King Jr. and a few others.

He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished

The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy. (“Tomorrow”)

All great literature is one of two stories

If you want to consume the cream of Christ's philosophy, then don't read the Bible, read Tolstoy.

...Tolstoy said, happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story - then what does that make us?...

Chance created the situation

All happy families are alike

Some one dear to one can be loved with human love

The feelings resembled memories

I simply want to live

The sanctification of political power by Christianity is blasphemy

He was not thinking that the Christian law which he had wanted to follow all his life prescribed that he forgive and love his enemies