Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

29 quotes

Leo Tolstoy, a Russian writer, is widely remembered for insights that continue to resonate with readers everywhere. Whether reflecting on Men or War, Leo Tolstoy brought uncommon clarity to every subject. 45 of Leo Tolstoy's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Men, War, Life, Work, and Truth. A favorite of many readers: "One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken."

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Change

All Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

“If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Men

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Music

“To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can't eat it.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Art

“The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Life

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

— Leo Tolstoy

God

“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Truth

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Amazing

“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Family

“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Happiness

“Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Death

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Patience

“There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Truth

“Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Government

“All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Death

“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Food

“If so many men, so many minds, certainly so many hearts, so many kinds of love.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Love

“The greater the state, the more wrong and cruel its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Patriotism

“In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Alone

“Faith is the sense of life, that sense by virtue of which man does not destroy himself, but continues to live on. It is the force whereby we live.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Faith

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Change