Quotes from Leo Tolstoy

As is often the case with those gifted with an ardent imagination, though he had long known that Moscow would be abandoned, he knew it only with his intellect, he did not believe it in his heart and did not adapt himself mentally to this new position of affairs.

That is the way in which the majority of people of our circle make life possible for themselves. Their circumstances furnish them with more of welfare than of hardship, and their moral dullness makes it possible for them to forget that the advantage of their position is accidental,

How can one be well when one suffers morally? Is it possible to remain at ease in our time, if one has any feeling?

be tempted by so easy a way of ending my life. I did not myself know what I wanted: I feared life, desired to escape from it, yet still hoped something of it. And all this befell

We Russians are always like that. Perhaps it's our strong point, really, the faculty of seeing our own shortcomings; but we overdo it, we comfort ourselves with irony which we always have on the tip of our tongues. All I say is, give such rights as our local self-government to any other European people—why, the Germans or the English would have worked their way to freedom from them, while we simply turn them into ridicule.

Levin spent that evening with his betrothed at Dolly's, and was in very high spirits. To explain to Stepan Arkadyevitch the state of excitement in which he found himself, he said that he was happy like a dog being trained to jump through a hoop, who, having at last caught the idea, and done what was required of him, whines and wags its tail, and jumps up to the table and the windows in its delight.

Ma tu mi dici: entra nella nostra confraternita e noi ti indicheremo lo scopo della vita, la missione dell'uomo, le leggi che governano il mondo. Ma noi chi siamo? Siamo uomini. Perché voi dovreste sapere tutto? Come mai io soltanto non vedrei quello che vedete voi? Voi vedere sulla terra il regno del bene e della verità, ma io non lo vedo.

How sweet he is!" said Countess Marya, looking at the baby and playing with him. "This is what I don't understand, Nicolas," she turned to her husband. "How is it you don't understand the charm of these charming little miracles?" "I just don't, I can't," said Nikolai, looking at the baby with a cold gaze. "A piece of meat.

Death is more certain than tomorrow, night after day, winter after summer. So why do we prepare for tomorrow, night and winter, but not death?

No. All I say is that it is not argument that convinces me of the necessity of a future life, but this: when you go hand in hand with someone and all at once that person vanishes there, into nowhere, and you yourself are left facing that abyss, and look in. And I have looked in....

The practically nude Hélène was sitting near her, smiling at everyone with the same smile and Natasha gave Boris just such a smile.

In the corporal's changed face, in the sound of his voice, in the stirring and deafening noise of the drums, he recognized that mysterious, callous force which compelled people against their will to kill their fellow men—that force the effect of which he had witnessed during the executions. To fear or to try to escape that force, to address entreaties or exhortations to those who served as its tools, was useless.

What can one do?' " Stepan Oblonsky says early on in the book. " 'The world's made like that.' " Part of the way this world was made is that wives get older faster than their husbands.

People speak of misfortunes and sufferings," remarked Pierre, "but if at this moment I were asked: 'Would you rather be what you were before you were taken prisoner, or go through all this again?' then for heaven's sake let me again have captivity and horseflesh! We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us. I

We imagine that as soon as we are torn out of our habitual path all is over, but it is only the beginning of something new and good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a great deal, a great deal before us. That I say to you," he

The theme is everything. Once one has a theme, it is easy to embroider on it.

every time conquerors appear there have been wars, but this does not prove that the conquerors caused the wars and that it is possible to find the laws of a war in the personal activity of a single man

There are traditions still extant among the people of Slavs of the true faith suffering under the yoke of the 'unclean sons of Hagar.

To study the laws of history we must completely change the subject of our observation, must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and study the common, infinitesimally small elements by which the masses are moved. No

The doctor declared that his physical sufferings were terrible, and he was right; but more horrible even than his physical sufferings were his moral sufferings, his greatest torment.

Now then, leave the children to themselves

Noticing other people's faults arises from dissatisfaction with ourselves. Often, in criticizing our neighbour, we fall into making the same error for which we have just criticized someone else. Those people who are not concerned about the salvation of their soul and who do not attempt to improve themselves can easily fall into temptation and be seduced into following the example of others. From Pious Thoughts

I did not expect this of you,' said the staff-captain seriously and severely. 'You don't wish to apologize, young sir, but it's not only to him but to the whole regiment—all of us—you're to blame all around. The

con amor siempre se es feliz, puesto que la felicidad está en uno mismo. Egor