Leo Tolstoy quotes - page 8

Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid. (Leo Tolstoy)
The Kingdom of God is Within You. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Some mathematician has said pleasure lies not in discovering truth, but in seeking it. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ's compassion for us no sorrow is trifiling. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
He was fond of angling, and seemed proud of being able to like such a stupid occupation. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Quos vilt perdere dementat' Whome the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad (Latin). View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won't come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done? View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Energy rests upon love; and come as it will, there's no forcing it. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
I don't allow myself to doubt myself even for a moment. (Leo Tolstoy)
the same question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?"... p982. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
But that's just the aim of civilization - to make everything a source of enjoyment. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
the very fact of the death of someone close to them aroused in all who heard about it, as always, a feeling of delight that he had died and they hadn't. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The example of a syllogism that he had studied in Kiesewetter's logic: Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal, had throughout his whole life seemed to him right only in relation to Caius, but not to him at all. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
excuse me' he added, taking the opera glasses out of her hands and looking over her bare shoulder at the row of boxes opposite, 'i'm afraid i'm becoming ridiculous. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
It's like scarlet fever: one has to get it over." "Then one should invent a way of inoculating love, like vaccination. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
either you are so underdeveloped that you can't see all that you can do, or you won't sacrifice your ease, your vanity, or whatever it is, to do it... View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The assertion that art may be good art and at the same time incomprehensible to a great number of people is extremely unjust, and its consequences are ruinous to art itself...it is the same as saying some kind of food is good but most people can't eat it. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
It will be said, "Patriotism has welded mankind into states, and maintains the unity of states." But men are now united in states; that work is done; why now maintain exclusive devotion to one's own state, when this produces terrible evils for all states and nations? For this same patriotism which welded mankind into states is now destroying those same states. If there were but one patriotism say of the English only then it were possible to regard that as conciliatory, or beneficent. But when, as now, there is American patriotism, English, German, French, Russian, all opposed to one another, in this event, patriotism no longer unites, but disunites. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The positivist philosophy of Comte and the I doctrine deduced from it that humanity is an organism, and Darwin's doctrine of a law of the struggle for existence that is supposed to govern life, with the differentiation of various breeds of people which follows from it, and the anthropology, biology, and sociology of which people are now so fond-all have the same aim. These have all become favourite sciences because they serve to justify the way in which people free themselves from the human obligation to labour, while consuming the fruits of other people's labour. (Leo Tolstoy)
The condition of life to which people of the well-to-do classes are accustomed is that of an abundant production of various articles necessary for their comfort and pleasure, and these things are obtained only thanks to the existence of factories and works organized as at present. And, therefore, discussing the improvement of the workers' position, the men of science belonging to the well- to-do classes always have in view only such improvements as will not do away with the system of factory-production and those conveniences of which they avail themselves. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
Saying that what we call our "selves" consist only of our bodies and that reason, soul, and love arise only from the body, is like saying that what we call our body is equivalent to the food that feeds the body. It is true that my body is only made up of digested food and that my body would not exist without food, but my body is not the same as food. Food is what the body needs for life, but it is not the body itself. The same thing is true of my soul. It is true that without my body there would not be that which I call my soul, but my soul is not my body. The soul may need the body, but the body is not the soul. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
The Quakers sent me books, from which I learnt how they had, years ago, established beyond doubt the duty for a Christian of fulfilling the command of non-resistance to evil by force, and had exposed the error of the Church's teaching in allowing war and capital punishment. View quote
Leo Tolstoy
In the year 1884 I wrote a book under the title "What I Believe," in which I did in fact make a sincere statement of my beliefs. In affirming my belief in Christ's teaching, I could not help explaining why I do not believe, and consider as mistaken, the Church's doctrine... Among the many points in which this doctrine falls short of the doctrine of Christ I pointed out as the principal one the absence of any commandment of non-resistance to evil by force. The perversion of Christ's teaching by the teaching of the Church is more clearly apparent in this than in any other point of difference. View quote
Leo Tolstoy