Quotes By Leo Tolstoy

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.

The most mentally deranged people are certainly those who see in others indications of insanity they do not notice in themselves.

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.

War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war.

The true office of any faith is to give life a meaning which death cannot destroy.

Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible.

Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.

The best thoughts most often come in the morning after waking, while still in bed or while walking.

A battle is won by him who is firmly resolved to win it.

There are no conditions to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.

Eating meat is a leftover of the greatest brutality [killing]; the transition to vegetarianism is the first and most natural consequence of enlightenment.

It is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame some one else, and especially the person nearest of all to him, for the ground of his dissatisfaction.

Be bad, but at least don't be a liar, a deceiver!

Loving the same man or woman all your life, why, that's like supposing the same candle could last you all your life

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

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

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

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

Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.

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