Quotes from Leo Tolstoy

From that day the eldest princess quite changed toward Pierre and began knitting a striped scarf for him.

Besides, Oblonsky was fond of a pleasant joke, and sometimes liked to perplex a simple-minded man by observing that if you're going to be proud of your ancestry, why stop short at prince Rurik and repudiate your oldest ancestor-- the ape?

He looked back on his past life, which had been so wretched. How had he been able to bear that terrible burden? He had borne it because through the darkness flickered a tiny star of hope. Once when he was alive he thought that perhaps a better lot might still be in store for him. But now that he had advanced toward the end, hope, too, was dead.

I shall always remember that in this world one must expect no reward, that in this world there is neither honour nor justice. In this world one has to be cunning and cruel.

Cowardice is knowing what you should do and then not doing it. Confucius

It all lies in the fact that men think there are circumstances in which one may deal with human beings without love; and there are no such circumstances.

We shall have to stay the night here,' he said, as if preparing to spend the night at an inn, and he proceeded to unfasten the collar-straps. The buckles came undone. 'But shan't we be frozen?' remarked Vasili Andreevich. 'Well, if we are we can't help it.' said Nikita.

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.

Como se através de uma janela aberta num quarto abafado soprasse de repente um ar fresco do campo, assim também soprou, no abatido estado-maior de Kutúzov, a mocidade, a energia e a convicção da vitória que vinham daquela juventude radiosa que chegara a galope.

A man is never such an egotist as at moments of spiritual ecstasy. At

Money, in itself, is evil. And therefore he who gives money gives evil.

except life's usual answer to the most complex and insoluble questions. That answer is: live in the needs of the day, that is find forgetfulness.

In my opinion, it is in the smile of a face that the essence of what we call beauty lies. If the smile heightens the charm of the face, then the face is a beautiful one. If the smile does not alter the face, then the face is an ordinary one. But if the smile spoils the face, then the face is an ugly one indeed. Mamma

Constantine Levin did not like talking or hearing about the beauty of nature. Words seemed to detract from the beauty of what he was looking at.

I work, I want to do something, but I had forgotten it must all end; I had forgotten-death.

All that world, that sky, that garden, that air, were not the same as I had known.

I looked more widely around me. I looked at the lives of the multitudes who have lived in the past and who live today. And of those who understood the meaning of life I saw not two, or three, or ten, but hundreds, thousands and millions. And all of them, endlessly varied in their customs, minds, educations and positions, and in complete contrast to my ignorance, knew the meaning of life and death, endured suffering and hardship, lived and died and saw this not as vanity but good.

He felt that the world that had been shattered was once more stirring to life in his soul, in new beauty and on new and steadfast foundations.

How many there are of them; how very many and how well fed they all look! And what clean shirts and hands they all have, and how well all their boots are polished! Who does it for them? How comfortable they all are, as compared not only with the prisoners, but even with the peasants!

The higher a man's conception of God, the better will he know Him. And the better he knows God, the nearer will he draw to Him, imitating His goodness, His mercy, and his love of man. Therefore, let him who sees the sun's whole light filling the world, refrain from blaming or despising the superstitious man, who in his own idol sees one ray of that same light. Let him not despise even the unbeliever who is blind and cannot see the sun at all.

told him long ago: that God is here and everywhere. In his captivity he had learned that in Karataev God was greater, more infinite and unfathomable than in the Architect of the Universe recognized by the Freemasons. He felt like a man who after straining his eyes to see into the far distance finds what he sought at his very feet. All his life he had looked over the heads of the men around him, when he should have merely looked in front of him without straining his eyes.

To me you are detestable, disgusting—a stranger, yes, a perfect stranger!' She uttered that word stranger, so terrible to herself, with anguish and hatred.

Ile serc, tyle rodzajów mi?o?ci

What is a Pietist, papa?" asked Kitty, dismayed to find that what she prized so highly in Madame Stahl had a name. "I don't quite know myself. I only know that she thanks God for everything, for every misfortune, and thanks God too that her husband died. And that's rather droll, as they didn't get on together.