Quotes by
Leo Tolstoy |
1828–1910 , Russian writer
Leo Tolstoy is regarded as one of the greatest writers in world literature. Born into nobility, he gained fame with War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), masterpieces of realism. Later, he embraced spiritual and moral reform, writing The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Resurrection (1899), and essays on nonviolence that influenced Gandhi.
His life embodied the tension between wealth and a quest for simplicity.
| 29 quotes | 315 visits |
Quotations
| • | Wealth is a great sin in the eyes of God. Poverty is a great sin in the eyes of man. 4 |
| • | A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction. 4 |
| • | Boredom: the desire for desires. 4 |
| • | Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. 3 |
| • | What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. 3 |
| • | All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (the first phrase in “Anna Karenina”) 3 |
| • | Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for a part of your life, and a goal for each year. A goal for each month, a goal for each week, a goal for each day, a goal for each hour, and each minute. And sacrifice the smaller goal for the bigger one. 3 |
| • | If you feel pain, you are alive, but if you feel the pain of others, you are human. 3 |
| • | Don’t talk to me about your religion, let me see your religion in your actions. 3 |
| • | Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. 2 |
| • | There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth. 2 |
| • | A Gentleman is a man who will pay his gambling debts even when he knows he has been cheated. 2 |
| • | Government is a group of people who harass the rest. 2 |
| • | Three things characterize a wise man: First, he himself does what he advises others to do. Second, he does nothing that contradicts the truth. Third, he is patient with the weaknesses of others. 2 |
| • | Never pay attention to those who speak ill of others and say good things about you. 2 |
| • | Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. 1 |
| • | Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience. The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. 1 |
| • | What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility. 1 |
| • | Upon meeting, you’re judged by your clothes, upon parting you’re judged by your wits. 1 |
| • | The kinder and the more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. 1 |
| • | Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women. 1 |
| • | Rest, nature, books, music...such is my idea of happiness. 1 |
| • | I have found that a story leaves a deeper impression when it is impossible to tell which side the author is on. 1 |
| • | All great literature is one of two stories: a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. 1 |
| • | Happiness is in your ability to love others. 1 |
| • | When doing good to someone, don't forget to thank him. 1 |
| • | Stinginess and studiousness have something in common: the more they save, the less they think they possess. 1 |
| • | One of the most common temptations, which leads to serious trouble, is the temptation of the words: “Everyone does it that way.” 1 |
| • | Dispel the thought that you have qualities that others don't have. 1 |
