Leo Tolstoy
Author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina
Most quoted
"One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has his own special, definite qualities: that he is kind, cruel, wise, stupid, energetic, apathetic, etc. Men are not like that... men are like rivers: the water is the same in each, and alike in all; but every river is narrow here, is more rapid there, here slower, there broader, now clear, now cold, now dull, now warm. It is the same with men."
— from War and Peace, 1869
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness."
— from Family Happiness, 1878
"The anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the idea of a state of society based on freedom and equality, in the idea of a future social order; only they are on the wrong track in believing that this state of society can be brought about by violence."
— from Letter to a Non-Commissioned Officer, 1900
All quotes by Leo Tolstoy (276)
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
A man can live a good life, be honorable and true, and yet be unhappy. A man can live a bad life, be dishonorable and false, and yet be happy. This is the way of the world.
Truth, like gold, is not to be obtained by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
If you want to be happy, be.
The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.
The only way to be saved from the evil of the world is to be saved from the evil within ourselves.
There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth.
The highest wisdom is to know that we know nothing.
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
The only way to do good is to be good.
The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it's over.
Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling.
The most important time is always now. The most important person is always the one you are with. The most important thing is always to do good.
Historians are like deaf people answering questions they have not heard.
To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying that some kind of food is good but that most people cannot eat it.
The highest spiritual state a man can reach is that in which he is ready to die for the truth.
Contemporaries of Leo Tolstoy
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910).