You know, Tolstoy, like myself, wasn't taken in by superstitions like science and medicine.

[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.

Morality is not respectability.

If only for a half hour a day, a child should do something serviceable to the community

I also made it quite clear that Socialism means equality of income or nothing, and that under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly feed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.

I talk democracy to these men and women. I tell them that they have the vote, and that theirs is the kingdom and the power and the glory. I say to them You are supreme: exercise your power. They say, That's right: tell us what to do; and I tell them. I say Exercise our vote intelligently by voting for me. And they do. That's democracy; and a splendid thing it is too for putting the right men in the right place.

The British are apt to make merits of their stupidities, and to represent their various incapacities as points of good breeding.