|
Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
LEO TOLSTOY, War and Peace
Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.
LEO TOLSTOY, What is Art?
Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.
LEO TOLSTOY, War and Peace
I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means -- except by getting off his back.
LEO TOLSTOY, What Then Must We Do?
In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.
LEO TOLSTOY, The Kingdom of God Is Within You
At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other even more reasonable says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger, since it is not a man's power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events; and that it is therefore better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.
LEO TOLSTOY, War and Peace
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.
LEO TOLSTOY, On Civil Disobedience
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.
LEO TOLSTOY, The First Step
Teach French and unteach sincerity.
LEO TOLSTOY, Anna Karenina
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.
LEO TOLSTOY, The Kreutzer Sonata
In historical events great men—so-called—are but labels serving to give a name to the event, and like labels they have the least possible connection with the event itself. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history, and predestined from all eternity.
LEO TOLSTOY, War and Peace
God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.
All happy families resemble each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
LEO TOLSTOY, Anna Karenina
The strongest of all warriors are these two -- Time and Patience.
LEO TOLSTOY, War and Peace
|
