But it seems to me that a man cannot and ought not to say that he loves, he said. Why not? I asked. Because it will always be a lie. As though it were a strange sort of discovery that someone is in love! Just as if, as soon as he said that, something went snap-bang - he loves. Just as if, when he utters that word, something extraordinary is bound to happen, with signs and portents, and all the cannons firing at once. It seems to me, he went on, that people who solemnly utter those words, 'I love you,' either deceive themselves, or what's still worse, deceive others.
Leo TolstoyAnd those who only know the non-platonic love have no need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of tragedy.
Leo TolstoyOne of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.
Leo TolstoyLoving the same man or woman all your life, why, that's like supposing the same candle could last you all your life
Leo TolstoyAnd not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect.
Leo TolstoyIn vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the servants. Religion has provided a conception of life, and science travels in the beaten path. Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances.
Leo Tolstoy