But the older he grew and the more intimately he came to know his brother, the oftener the thought occurred to him that the power of working for the general welfare โ a power of which he felt himself entirely destitute โ was not a virtue but rather a lack of something: not a lack of kindly honesty and noble desires and tastes, but a lack of the power of living, of what is called heart โ the aspiration which makes a man choose one out of all the innumerable paths of life that present themselves, and desire that alone.
Leo TolstoyYou consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance-guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!
Leo TolstoyWithout the support from religion--remember, we talked about it--no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child.
Leo TolstoyWhy should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?
Leo TolstoyOne ought only to write when one leaves a piece of one's own flesh in the inkpot, each time one dips one's pen.
Leo TolstoyAt the approach of danger two voices speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it and the other, even more reasonable, says that it is too painful and harassing to think of the danger... better to turn aside from the painful subject till it has come, and to think of what is pleasant. In solitude a man generally yields to the first voice; in society to the second.
Leo Tolstoy