Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

About Leo Tolstoy:

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian novelist regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If a man aspires to a righteous life, his first act of abstinence if from injury to animals.

Leo Tolstoy

You need feeling, emotion, to create. You can't create out of indifference.

Leo Tolstoy

Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.

Leo Tolstoy

Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.

Leo Tolstoy

He was in a fairy kingdom where everything was possible. He looked up at the sky. And the sky was a fairy realm like the earth. It was clearing, and over the tops of the trees clouds were swiftly sailing as if unveiling the stars.

Leo Tolstoy

The best stories don't come from "good vs. bad" but "good vs. good.

Leo Tolstoy

Boredom is desire seeking desire.

Leo Tolstoy

When loving with human love one may pass from love to hatred, but divine love cannot change.

Leo Tolstoy

The antagonism between life and conscience may be removed in two ways: by a change of life or by a change of conscience.

Leo Tolstoy

The true meaning of Christ's teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.

Leo Tolstoy

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. Read more at

Leo Tolstoy

He disliked contradiction, and still more, arguments that were continually skipping from one thing to another, introducing new and disconnected points, so that there was no knowing to which to reply.

Leo Tolstoy

I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love.

Leo Tolstoy

God gave the day, God gave the strength.

Leo Tolstoy

My life came to a standstill. I could breathe, eat, drink and sleep, and I could not help doing these things; but there was no life, for there were no wishes the fulfilment of which I could consider reasonable. If I desired anything, I knew in advanc...

Leo Tolstoy

Everybody thinks of changing humanity, but nobody thinks of changing themselves.

Leo Tolstoy

How good is it to remember one's insignificance: that of a man among billions of men, of an animal amid billions of animals; and one's abode, the earth, a little grain of sand in comparison with Sirius and others, and one's life span in comparison wi...

Leo Tolstoy

Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.

Leo Tolstoy

if they hadn’t both been pretending, but had had what is called a heart-to-heart talk, that is, simply told each other just what they were thinking and feeling, then they would just have looked into each other’s eyes, and Constantine would only h...

Leo Tolstoy

One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees...

Leo Tolstoy

oh God! what am I to do if I love nothing but fame and men's esteem?

Leo Tolstoy

Author Bio

  • NameLeo Tolstoy
  • DescriptionRussian writer
  • AliasesTolstoi; Tolstoy
  • BornAugust 28, 1828
  • DiedNovember 7, 1910
  • CountryRussian Empire
  • ProfessionWriter; Playwright; Philosopher; Novelist; Esperantist; Children's Writer; Educationist
  • WorksWar And Peace; Anna Karenina; A Confession; The Kingdom Of God Is Within You; Sebastopol Sketches; What Is Art?; What Is To Be Done?; Boyhood; Childhood; The Cossacks; The Death Of Ivan Ilyich; Family Happiness; Hadji Murat; The Kreutzer Sonata; Resurrection; The Forged Coupon; Youth; The Fruits Of Enlightenment; The Light Shines In The Darkness; The Living Corpse; The Power Of Darkness; The Devil; Albert; Alyosha The Pot; The Big Oven; Croesus And Fate; Father Sergius; God Sees The Truth, But Waits; The Grain; How Much Land Does A Man Need?; Ivan The Fool (story); Kholstomer; A Lost Opportunity; Master And Man; Promoting A Devil; Quench The Spark; The Raid; Repentance; The Snowstorm; The Three Hermits; Three Deaths; The Three Questions; Too Dear!; What Men Live By; Where Love Is, God Is; Wisdom Of Children; Work, Death, And Sickness