1,507 Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

Here I am alive, and it’s not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over.

I can’t understand how anyone can write without rewriting everything over and over again.

But I’m glad you’ll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn’t want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don’t want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven’t I?

I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means – except by getting off his back.

If a man does not work at necessary and good things, then he will work at unnecessary and stupid things.

When one’s head is gone one doesn’t weep over one’s hair!

It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.

An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life - becoming a better person.

If you want to be happy, be!