Quotes from Leo Tolstoy

War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of starting it.

Wealth is a great sin in the eyes of God. Poverty is a great sin in the eyes of man.

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.

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.

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.

Man has received direct from God only one instrument wherewith to know himself and to know his relation to the universe--he has no other--and that instrument is reason.

I am sure that nothing has such a decisive influence upon a man's course as his personal appearance, and not so much his appearance as his belief in its attractiveness or unattractiveness.

Like all mad men, I thought everyone was mad except myself.

Beautiful as seemed mama's face, it became more lovely when she smiled and seemed to enliven everything about her.

Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that it is impersonal - that there is no human relation between master and slave.

The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking, while still in bed or while walking.

Go take the mother's soul, and learn three truths: Learn What dwells in man, What is not given to man , and What men live by . When thou hast learnt these things, thou shalt return to heaven.

Rest, nature, books, music...such is my idea of happiness.

Konstantin Levin did not like talking and hearing about the beauty of nature. Words for him took away the beauty of what he saw.

One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees...

When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but divine love cannot change.

Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.

The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.

Patriotism is the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers.

As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. A vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism.

There can be no peace for us, only misery, and the greatest happiness.

If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.

We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening.