Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

“What is reason given me for, if I am not to use it to avoid bringing unhappy beings into the world!”

“I keep finding myself confronted with the question, “What is the aim of man’s life?” and, no matter what result my reflections reach, no matter what I take to be life’s source, I invariably arrive ...”

“My field was God’s earth. Wherever I ploughed, there was my field. Land was free. It was a thing no man called his own. Labor was the only thing men called their own.”

“he was one of those diplomats who like and know how to work, and, despite his laziness, he occasionally spent nights at his desk.”

“Everyone had something disparaging to say about the unfortunate Maltyshcheva, and the conversation began crackling merrily like a kindling bonfire.”

“There are no conditions to which a man cannot become used, especially if he sees that all around him are living in the same way.”

“Art is a human activity consisting in this that one man consciously by means of external signs hands on to others feelings he has worked through and other people are infected by these feelings and ...”

“Christianity with its doctrine of humility of forgiveness of love is incompatible with the state with its haughtiness its violence its punishment its wars.”

“Happiness does not depend on outward things but on the way we see them.”

“To love one's neighbors to love one's enemies to love everything - to love God in all His manifestations - human love serves to love those dear to us but to love one's enemies we need divine love.”

“All happy families resemble one another every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

“Man is meant for happiness and this happiness is in him in the satisfaction of the daily needs of his existence.”

“I am used to praying when I am alone thank God. But when I come together with other people when I need more than ever to pray I still cannot get used to it.”

“Regard the society of women as a necessary unpleasantness of social life and avoid it as much as possible.”

“Work is the inevitable condition of human life the true source of human welfare.”