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d0afb2c
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in marriage the great thing was love, and that with love one would always be happy, for happiness rests only on oneself.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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95943d8
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Then as now much time was spent arguing about the rights of women, husband-and-wife relationships and freedom and rights within marriage, but Natasha had no interest in any such questions. Questions like these, then as now, existed exclusively for people who see marriage only in terms of satisfaction given and received by the married couple, though this is only one principle of married life rather than its overall meaning, which lies in the..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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11f7fdb
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The scent of flowers grew stronger and came from all sides; the grass was drenched with dew; a nightingale struck up in a lilac bush close by and then stopped on hearing our voices; the starry sky seemed to come down lower over our heads.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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753ccf6
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I love everybody and pity everybody.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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068da29
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As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,--whether a woman of the people with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own society in her ball-room dress. But now it simply terrifies me. I see in it a danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a desire to call a pol..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c7dd436
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War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in life; and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game. As it is now, war is the favorite pastime of the idle and frivolous. The military calling is the most highly honored.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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1fb285b
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I've lost my heart to you.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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186c85c
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But a man's relationship to the world is determined not just by his intellect but by his feelings and by his who aggregate of spiritual forces. However much one implies or explains to a person that all that truly exists is no more than an idea, or that everything is made up of atoms, or that the essence of life is substance or will, or that heat, light, movement and electricity are only manifestations of one and the same energy; however muc..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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bf41584
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The constant, obvious flattery, contrary to all evidence, of the people around him [Tsar Nicholas I] had brought him to the point that he no longer saw his contradictions, no longer conformed his actions and words to reality, logic, or even simple common sense, but was fully convinced that all his orders, however senseless, unjust, and inconsistent with each other, became sensible, just, and consistent with each other only because he gave t..
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narcissism
self-delusion
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Leo Tolstoy |
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ce6d4d2
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What do you want? What do you want?" he repeated to himself. "What do I want? To live and not to suffer," he answered. And again he listened with such concentrated attention that even his pain did not distract him. "To live? How?" asked his inner voice. "Why, to live as I used to--well and pleasantly." "As you lived before, well and pleasantly?" the voice repeated. And in imagination he began to recall the best moments of his pleasant life...
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Leo Tolstoy |
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193f7f2
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No, you're not going to get away from us, and you're not going to be different, you're going to be the same as you've always been; with doubts, ever lasting dissatisfaction with yourself, vain efforts to improve, and failures, and continual expectations of happiness that has eluded you and that isn't possible for you.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f55708d
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It was one of those things that one knows but cannot even tell oneself - so dreadful and shameful it would be to be mistaken.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f03b428
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Il ne faut jamais rien outrer: One must do nothing in excess
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Leo Tolstoy |
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42056c5
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I and all men have only one firm, incontestable, clear knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be explained by the reason--it is outside it, and has no causes and can have no effects. "If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect."
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Leo Tolstoy |
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4d396d9
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I've enough pride never to let myself love a man who does not love me.
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pride
unrequited-love
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Leo Tolstoy |
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72ced9d
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All the methods of appointing authorities that have been tried, divine right, and election, and heredity, and balloting, and assemblies and parliaments and senate--all have proved ineffectual. Everyone knows that not one of these methods attains the aim either of entrusting power only to the incorruptible, or of preventing power from being abused. Everyone knows on the contrary that men in authority--be they emperors, ministers, governors, ..
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authority
government
government-corruption
politics
power
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Leo Tolstoy |
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50c42bd
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A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally both in mind and body as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured as being a citizen of the best-organized state in the world and therefore, as an Englishman, always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other p..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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e742d52
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The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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075b3c5
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And yet our existence is so organized that every personal enjoyment is purchased at the price of human suffering contrary to human nature.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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62a30d6
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Oh! How good it is to be your age! I remember, and I know that blue haze like the mist on the mountains of Switzerland. That mist which covers everything in that blissful time when childhood is just ending, and out of the vast circle, happy and gay, there is a path growing narrower and narrower, and it is delightful and alarming to enter the ballroom, bright and splendid as it is...
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Leo Tolstoy |
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82b2215
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A moment's pain can be a lifetime's gain.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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6800204
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Yes, it was real hatred - not the hatred we only read about in novels, which I do not believe in, hatred that is supposed to find satisfaction in doing some one harm - but the hatred that fills you with overpowering aversion for a person who, however, deserves your respect, yet whose hair, his neck, the way he walks, the sound of his voice, his whole person, his every gesture are repulsive to you, and at the same time some unaccountable for..
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childhood
tolstoy
youth
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c4b3f74
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You have a consistent character yourself and you wish all the facts of life to be consistent, but they never are. For instance you despise public service because you want work always to correspond to its aims, and that never happens. You also want the activity of each separate man to have an aim, and love and family life always to coincide--and that doesn't happen either. All the variety, charm and beauty of life are made up of light and sh..
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dissonance
incongruity
spectrum
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Leo Tolstoy |
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9cdd2f0
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Well Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist-- and I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave', as you call yourself! But how are you? I see I have frightened you--sit down a..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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064b0b0
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Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective,
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leo
tolstoy
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Leo Tolstoy |
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3f08fa8
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wHd lnby mHmd qby'l l`rb w'nr 'fkrhm w'bSrhm bm`rf@ llh lwHd hdhb 'khlfhm wlyn Tb`hm wqlwbhm w'SlH `dthm lbrbry@ lhmjy@ wj`lhm 'm@ mst`d@ llrqy wltqdm.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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ece5683
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flns yshbhwn l'nhr yjry lm fyh jmy`an , Gyr 'n 'Hdh ykwn mstqyman fy mkn m wmt`rjan fy akhr , ws`an wDyqan . Sfy lm w`krh , ftran wbrdan whkdh sh'n lbshr , fhm yHmlwn fy dkhlhm bdhwr lfDy'l wlrdhy'l , fTwran ttGlb hdhh w Twran ttGlb tlk
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Leo Tolstoy |
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34e73d2
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Ali ljudi - veliki, odrasli ljudi - nisu prestajali da varaju i muce sami sebe i jedan drugoga. Ljudi su drzali da nije sveto i vazno to proljetno jutro, ni ta krasota svijeta bozjega stvorena za dobro svim bicima - krasota koja pozivlje za mir, slogu i ljubav - nego je sveto i vazno ono sto su izmislili oni sami da bi vladali jedan nad drugim
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f43ac01
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lm tkn bHj@ lttsl : lma kn hn . knt t`lm Hq l`lm , km lw 'nh hw ldhy 'nb'h bdhlk, 'nh kn hn lykwn Hyth tkwn .
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Leo Tolstoy |
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75a5f4c
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n lmr@ qd tkhd` 'shd lns dh wdhk , lkn 'shd lTfl Gb yktshfh wyu`rD `nh, mhm 'khfyt bbr`@
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2c9d5c1
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But when, as is most often the case, the husband and wife accept the external obligation to live together all their lives and have, by the second month, come to loathe the sight of each other, want to get divorced and yet go on living together, it usually ends in that terrible hell that drives them to drink, makes them shoot themselves, kill and poison each other
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love
marriage
murder
problems
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f044d7b
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They abolish the external form, they suppress the formal sales of slaves, and then they imagine and assure others that slavery is abolished. They are unwilling to see that it still exists, since people, as before, like to profit by the labor of others, and think it good and just. This being given, there will always be found beings stronger or more cunning than others to profit thereby. The same thing happens in the emancipation of woman. At..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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1e12170
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One man may not kill. If he kills a fellow-creature, he is a murderer. If two, ten, a hundred men do so, they, too, are murderers. But a government or a nation may kill as many men as it chooses, and that will not be murder, but a great and noble action. Only gather the people together on a large scale, and a battle of ten thousand men becomes an innocent action. But precisely how many people must there be to make it so?--that is the questi..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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b70c0b1
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To take the simplest example: one man laughs, and another, who hears, becomes merry; or a man weeps, and another, who hears, feels sorrow. A man is excited or irritated, and another man, seeing him, comes to a similar state of mind. By his movements, or by the sounds of his voice, a man expresses courage and determination, or sadness and calmness, and this state of mind passes on to others. A man suffers, expressing his sufferings by groans..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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ea5341f
|
I do not live when I loose belief in the existence of God. I should long ago have killed myself had I not had a dim hope of finding Him. I live really live only when I feel him and seek Him
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god
meaning-of-life
suicide
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f1a7f13
|
Answer me two more questions,' said the King. 'The first is, Why did the earth bear such grain then and has ceased to do so now? And the second is, Why your grandson walks with two crutches, your son with one, and you yourself with none? Your eyes are bright, your teeth sound, and your speech clear and pleasant to the ear. How have these things come about?'
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Leo Tolstoy |
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772dac7
|
there was apparent in all a sort of anxiety, a softening of the heart, and a consciousness of some great, unfathomable mystery being accomplished... the most solemn mystery in the world was being accomplished. Evening passed, night came on. And the feeling of suspense and softening of the heart before the unfathomable did not wane, but grew more intense. No one slept.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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74fcb97
|
Our existence is now so entirely in contradiction with the doctrine of Jesus, that only with the greatest difficulty can we understand its meaning. We have been so deaf to the rules of life that he has given us, to his explanations,--not only when he commands us not to kill, but when he warns us against anger, when he commands us not to resist evil, to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies; we are so accustomed to speak of a body of men..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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b2fb877
|
War is the most painful act of subjection to the laws of God that can be required of the human will.
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war
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Leo Tolstoy |
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e0b04ac
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Formerly (it had begun almost from childhood and kept growing till full maturity), whenever he had tried to do something that would be good for everyone, for mankind, for Russia, for the district, for the whole village, he had noticed that thinking about it was pleasant, but the doing itself was always awkward, there was no full assurance that the thing was absolutely necessary, and the doing itself, which at the start had seemed so big, ke..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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e755308
|
He spoke with such self-confidence that his hearers could not be sure whether what he said was very witty or very stupid.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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cb2b282
|
This foolish smile he could not forgive himself.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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95948ef
|
I had begun to feel that life was a repetition of the same thing; that there was nothing new either in me or in him; and that, on the contrary, we kept going back as it were on what was old.
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marriage
old-habits
relationships
stagnant
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Leo Tolstoy |
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a8789ca
|
He had committed no evil action, but, what was far worse than an evil action, he had entertained evil thoughts, whence evil actions proceed. An evil action may not be repeated, and can be repented of; but evil thoughts generate all evil actions. An evil action only smooths the path for other evil acts; evil thoughts uncontrollably drag one along that path.
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Leo Tolstoy |