Leo Tolstoy quotes - page 19

One free man will say with truth what he thinks and feels amongst thousands of men who by their acts and words attest exactly the opposite. It would seem that he who sincerely expressed his thought must remain alone, whereas it generally happens that every one else, or the majority at least, have been thinking and feeling the same things but without expressing them. (Leo Tolstoy)
In the upper, rich, more educated classes of European society doubt arose as to the truth of that understanding of life which was expressed by Church Christianity. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Whereas at present, every man, even, if free, asks himself, "What can I do alone against all this ocean of evil and deceit which overwhelms us? Why should I express my opinion? Why indeed possess one? View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
In the midst of winter, I find within me the invisible summer... View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I am not strange but I feel queer. I am like that sometimes. I feel like crying all the time. It is very silly but it will pass. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished; he died. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Life is too long to say anything definitely; always say perhaps. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I think that to find out what love is really like, one must first make a mistake and then put it right. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Progress consists, not in the increase of truth, but in freeing it from its wrappings. The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't gold. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Death is finished, he said to himself. It is no more! (Leo Tolstoy)
Time and Patience. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt it in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light all around her. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Why are you so sad? - Because you speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Yes, there is something uncanny, demonic and fascinating in her. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
And he has to live like this on the edge of destruction, alone, with nobody at all to understand or pity him. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
You conquer me. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I had wished to visit a slaughter-house, in order to see with my own eyes the reality of the question raised when vegetarianism is discussed. But at first I felt ashamed to do so, as one is always ashamed of going to look at suffering which one knows is about to take place, but which one cannot avert; and so I kept putting off my visit. But a little while ago I met on the road a butcher ... He is not yet an experienced butcher, and his duty is to stab with a knife. I asked him whether he did not feel sorry for the animals that he killed. He gave me the usual answer: 'Why should I feel sorry? It is necessary. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
It was not given to the mother to know what her children needed for their life. Nor was it given to the rich man to know what he himself needed. Nor is it given to any man to know whether, when evening comes, he will need boots for his body or slippers for his corpse. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The unhappiness of our life; patch up our false way of life as we will, propping it up by the aid of the sciences and arts - that life becomes feebler, sicklier, and more tormenting every year; every year the number of suicides and the avoidance of motherhood increases; every year the people of that class become feebler; every year we feel the increasing gloom of our lives. Evidently salvation is not to be found by increasing the comforts and pleasures of life, medical treatments, artificial teeth and hair, breathing exercises, massage, and so forth;...It is impossible to remedy this by any amusements, comforts, or powders - it can only be remedied by a change of life. (Leo Tolstoy)
One must do nothing in excess. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Understand that all the evils from which you suffer, you yourselves cause by yielding to the suggestions by which yourselves cause by yielding to the suggestions by which emperors, kings, members of parliament, governors, officers, capitalists, priests, authors, artists, and all who need this fraud of patriotism in order to live upon your labour, deceive you! View quote
Leo Tolstoy
He who exalts himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I longed for activity, instead of an even flow of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to renounce self for the sake of my love. I was conscious of a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life. I had bouts of depression, which I tried to hide, as something to be ashamed of...My mind, even my senses were occupied, but there was another feeling – the feeling of youth and a craving for activity – which found no scope in our quiet life...So time went by, the snow piled higher and higher round the house, and there we remained together, always and for ever alone and just the same in each other's eyes; while somewhere far away amidst glitter and noise multitudes of people thrilled, suffered and rejoiced, without one thought of us and our existence which was ebbing away. View quote
Leo Tolstoy