Quote: In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Christianity, with its doctrine of humility, of forgiveness, of love, is incompatible with the state, with its haughtiness, its violence, its punishment and its wars. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: The Brahmins say that in their books there are many predictions of times in which it will rain. But press those books as strongly as you can, you can not get out of them a drop of water. So you can not get out of all the books that contain the best precepts the smallest good deed. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Boredom: the desire for desires. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Conceit is incompatible with understanding. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Though it is possible to utter words only with the intention to fulfill the will of God, it is very difficult not to think about the impression which they will produce on men and not to form them accordingly. But deeds you can do quite unknown to men, only for God. And such deeds are the greatest joy that a man can experience. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: True life is lived when tiny changes occur. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: 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]
Quote: Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Only those live who do good. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes -- love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and unjust. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Music is the shorthand of emotion. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: There is only one time that is important -- NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time hat we have any power. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Joy can be real only if people look on their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: I am always with myself and it is I who am my tormentor. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible. [Leo Tolstoy]
Quote: 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. [Leo Tolstoy]