the same question arose in every soul: "For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?"... p982
Leo TolstoyAnd once he had seen this, he could never again see it otherwise, just as we cannot reconstruct an illusion once it has been explained.
Leo TolstoyKonstantin Levin did not like talking and hearing about the beauty of nature. Words for him took away the beauty of what he saw.
Leo TolstoyPeople involve themselves in countless activities which they consider to be important, but they forget about one activity which is more important and necessary than any other, and which includes all other things: the improvement of their soul
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