Quotes from Leo Tolstoy

In reality I was ever revolving round one and the same insoluble problem, which was: How to teach without knowing what to teach.

So long as people do not consider all men as their brothers and do not consider human life as the most sacred thing, which rather than destroy they must consider it their first and foremost duty to support; that is so long as people do not behave towards one another in a religious manner, they will always ruin one another's lives for the sake of personal gain.

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

I know a gallant steed by tokens sure, And by his eyes I know a youth in love,

To claim that the supernatural and irrational form the basic characteristics of religion is much the same as noticing only the rotten apples and then claiming that the basic features of the fruit named apple are a flaccid bitterness and a harmful effect produced in the stomach.

I wrote: teaching what was for me the only truth, namely, that one should live so as to have the best for oneself and one's family.

In order to undertake anything in family life, it is necessary that there be either complete discord between the spouses or loving harmony.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay.

Only Anna was sad. She knew that now, from Dolly's departure, no one again would stir up within her soul the feelings that had been roused by their conversation. It hurt her to stir up these feelings, but yet she knew that that was the best part of her soul, and that that part of her soul would quickly be smothered in the life she was leading.

I ragionamenti lo portavano a dubbi e gli impedivano di vedere quel che si doveva e quel che non si doveva fare. Quando invece non pensava, ma viveva, sentiva incessantemente nell'animo suo la presenza d'un giudice infallibile che decideva quale di due azioni possibili fosse migliore e quale peggiore, e, appena agiva non così come si doveva, lo sentiva immediatamente.

Before any definite step can be taken in a household, there must be either complete division or loving accord between husband and wife.

He talked of this, and passionately longed to hear more of Kitty, and, at the same time, was afraid of hearing it. He dreaded the breaking up of the inward peace he had gained with such effort. "Yes,

Then these moments of perplexity began to recur oftener and oftener, and always in the same form. They were always expressed by the questions: What is it for? What does it lead to?

that religion is only a curb to keep in check the barbarous classes of the people

One who pays too much attention to what other people say about him will never find peace.

The liberal party said, or rather allowed it to be understood, that religion is only a curb to keep in check the barbarous classes of the people; and Stepan Arkadyevitch could not get through even a short service without his legs aching from standing up, and could never make out what was the object of all the terrible and high-flown language about another world when life might be so very amusing in this world.

El error consistía en que había atribuido a la vida en general una respuesta dirigida sólo a mí. Me preguntaba qué era mi vida, y recibía por respuesta que era un mal y una absurdidad. Y ciertamente, mi existencia, consagrada a la complacencia de mis deseos, era absurda y mala, y la afirmación de que la vida es mala y absurda sólo se refería a la mía propia y no a la vida en general.

It was as if that lofty infinite canopy of heaven that had once towered above him had suddenly turned into a low solid vault that weighed him down, in which all was clear, but nothing eternal or mysterious.

It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.

The first was that of ignorance. It consists in not knowing, not understanding, that life is an evil and an absurdity. People of this sort -- chiefly women, or very young or very dull people -- have not yet understood that question of life which presented itself to Schopenhauer, Solomon, and Buddha.

The answer was: "You'll die and all will end. You'll die and know all, or cease asking.

When you've grasped the fact that today or tomorrow you will die and nothing will be left of you, everything becomes so insignificant.

The further back he looked, the more life there had been in him; both the more sweetness to life, and the more of life itself. And the two tendencies had become firmly intertwined.

The danger lies not in the imaginary hydra of revolution, but in a stubborn traditionalism that impedes progress.