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b11ecbb
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I don't allow myself to doubt myself even for a moment.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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22d1731
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Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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ff0c183
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In captivity, in the shed, Pierre had learned, not with his mind, but with his whole being, his life, that man is created for happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfying of natural human needs, and that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from superfluity; but now, in these last three weeks of the march, he had learned a new and more comforting truth - he had learned that there is nothing frightening in the world. He had..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c4a2370
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It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
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criticism
scapegoat
scapegoating
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Leo Tolstoy |
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5657449
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Himmlisch ist's wenn ich bezwungen Meine irdische Begier; Aber doch wenn's nich gelungen Hatt' ich auch recht huebsch Plaisir! Loosely translated: It is heavenly, when I overcome My earthly desires But nevertheless, when I'm not successful, It can also be quite pleasurable.
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unfaithful
sexuality
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Leo Tolstoy |
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03ae989
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For if we allow that human life is always guided by reason, we destroy the premise that life is possible at all.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f44e9e6
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He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light."
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2c2eb9c
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I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven't I?
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Leo Tolstoy |
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bf2f5a7
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He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished; he died.
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kutuzov
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Leo Tolstoy |
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0b234f7
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I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. 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. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and chil..
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people
life
heart-of-a-man
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c3503d4
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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.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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cd655f0
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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 trifling.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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db6988c
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Ah, if everyone was as sensitive as you! There's no girl who hasn't gone through that. And it's all so unimportant!
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love
inspirational
heartbroken
sensitive
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Leo Tolstoy |
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35634f4
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Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered.
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humor
medicine
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2ca8002
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It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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f72bd41
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But that's the whole aim of civilization: to make everything a source of enjoyment.
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leo-tolstoy
civilization
enjoyment
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Leo Tolstoy |
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7a483a6
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For a few seconds they looked silently into each other's eyes, and the distant and impossible suddenly became near, possible, and inevitable.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2caca0b
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Life is too long to say anything definitely; always say perhaps.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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8f5a886
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But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.
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work
dishonest
leo-tolstoy
hierarchy
labor
honest
capitalism
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Leo Tolstoy |
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21824cc
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God forgive me everything!' she said, feeling the impossibility of struggling...
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suicide
forgiveness
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Leo Tolstoy |
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a628b74
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Remember then: there is only one time that is important-- Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2ab55a0
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We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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8ab37e3
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And where love ends, hate begins
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love
truth
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c0dcca5
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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.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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51e58c4
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These joys were so trifling as to be as imperceptible as grains of gold among the sand, and in moments of depression she saw nothing but the sand; yet there were brighter moments when she felt nothing but joy, saw nothing but the gold.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c4ba64e
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Though men in their hundreds of thousands had tried their hardest to disfigure that little corner of the earth where they had crowded themselves together, paving the ground with stones so that nothing could grow, weeding out every blade of vegetation, filling the air with the fumes of coal and gas, cutting down trees and driving away every beast and every bird -- spring, however, was still spring, even in the town. The sun shone warm, the g..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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55f97b1
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Then we should find some artificial inoculation against love, as with smallpox.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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a4a55d4
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But that had been grief--this was joy. Yet that grief and this joy were alike outside all the ordinary conditions of life; they were loopholes, as it were, in that ordinary life through which there came glimpses of something sublime. And in the contemplation of this sublime something the soul was exalted to inconceivable heights of which it had before had no conception, while reason lagged behind, unable to keep up with it.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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19e0172
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Everything ends in death, everything. Death is terrible.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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b8fff92
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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.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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2d3543f
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In order to understand, observe, deduce, man must first be conscious of himself as alive.
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life
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Leo Tolstoy |
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c28b96c
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I can't think of you and myself apart. You and I are the same to me
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Leo Tolstoy |
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5b52c57
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The higher a man stands on the social ladder, the greater the number of people he is connected with, the more power he has over other people, the more obvious is the predestination and inevitability of his every action.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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4869e09
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I can't praise a young lady who is alive only when people are admiring her, but as soon as she is left alone, collapses and finds nothing to her taste--one who is all for show and has no resources in herself
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Leo Tolstoy |
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40e9277
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One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has his own special, definite qualities; that a man 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. Every man carries in himself th..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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066c8b7
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There is an old Eastern fable about a traveler who is taken unawares on the steppes by a ferocious wild animal. In order to escape the beast the traveler hides in an empty well, but at the bottom of the well he sees a dragon with its jaws open, ready to devour him. The poor fellow does not dare to climb out because he is afraid of being eaten by the rapacious beast, neither does he dare drop to the bottom of the well for fear of being eaten..
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Leo Tolstoy |
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643c877
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The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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e2231c3
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He had the unlucky capacity many men have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in it.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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6e76ec8
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When Levin thought what he was and what he was living for, he could find no answer to the questions and was reduced to despair; but when he left off questioning himself about it, it seemed as though he knew both what he was and what he was living for, acting and living resolutely and without hesitation.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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3286149
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He knew she was there by the joy and terror that took possession of his heart [...] Everything was lit up by her. She was the smile that brightened everything around.
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love
leo-tolstoy
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Leo Tolstoy |
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a50a60d
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Always the same. Now a spark of hope flashes up, then a sea of despair rages, and always pain; always pain, always despair, and always the same. When alone he had a dreadful and distressing desire to call someone, but he knew beforehand that with others present it would be still worse.
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Leo Tolstoy |
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dc290b3
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We are all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all invent means of deceiving each other. And when one sees the truth, what is one to do?
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Leo Tolstoy |
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b470340
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Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts,, actions! They are all but grains of sand
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life
leo-tolstoy
life-philosophy
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Leo Tolstoy |
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a0076ee
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What is bad? What is good? What should one love, what hate? Why live, and what am I? What is lie,what is death? What power rules over everything?" he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions except one, which was not logical and was not at all an answer to these questions. This answer was: "You will die--and everything will end. You will die and learn everything--or stop asking."
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Leo Tolstoy |