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."

“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

All Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

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

— Leo Tolstoy

God

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Patience

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Art

“War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of starting it.”

— Leo Tolstoy

War

“Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Life

“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

“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

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Amazing

“True life is lived when tiny changes occur.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Change

“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

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Change

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Death

“Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Nature

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Family

“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

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Music

“War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.”

— Leo Tolstoy

War

“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

“The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.”

— Leo Tolstoy

God

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

— Leo Tolstoy

Government