Leo Tolstoy Quotes

The march of humanity, springing as it does from an infinite multitude of individual wills, is continuous.

Debates conceal rather than reveal the truth. Truth is revealed in solitude.

I do value my work awfully; but in reality only consider this: all this world of ours is nothing but a speck of mildew, which has grown up on a tiny planet. And for us to suppose we can have something great - ideas, work - it's all dust and ashes.

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.

If the thought ever comes to you that everything that you have thought about God is mistaken and that there is no God, do not be dismayed. It happens to many people. But do not think that the source of your unbelief is that there is no God.

Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life.

Until you do what you believe in, you don't know whether you believe it or not.

It is horrible! It is not the suffering and the death of the animals that is horrible, but the fact that the man without any need for so doing crushes his lofty feeling of sympathy and mercy for living creatures and does violence to himself that he may be cruel. The first element of moral life is abstinence.

Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.

Perfection is impossible without humility. Why should I strive for perfection, if I am already good enough?

There can be no peace for us, only misery, and the greatest happiness.

Every revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.

I'd rather end up wishing I hadn’t than end up wishing I had.

I say that the God who created the world in six days and who sent His son, and also his son himself, are not God, but that God is the one existing, incomparable good, the beginning of everything.