If a man does not work at necessary and good things, then he will work at unnecessary and stupid things
Leo TolstoyThe teaching of the church, theoretically astute, is a lie in practice and a compound of vulgar superstitions and sorcery.
Leo TolstoyArt is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.
Leo Tolstoy