Quotes By Leo Tolstoy

There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil.

Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget.

When one's head is gone one doesn't weep for one's hair!

I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.

Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere.

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

The teaching of the church, theoretically astute, is a lie in practice and a compound of vulgar superstitions and sorcery.

With friends, one is well; but at home, one is better.

Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.

Writing laws is easy, but governing is difficult.

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.

To abolish war it is necessary to abolish patriotism, and to abolish patriotism it is necessary first to understand that it is an evil. Tell people that patriotism is bad and most will reply, 'Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but mine is good patriotism.'

Governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions.

Progress consists only in the greater clarification of answers to the basic questions of life.

Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself.

To know God and to live is the same thing. God is Life.

Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.

For a few seconds they looked silently into each other's eyes, and the distant and impossible suddenly became near, possible, and inevitable.

The purpose of life is to bring forth goodness. Now, in this life.

One must put oneself in every one's position. To understand everything is to forgive everything.