1,507 Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.

Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders?

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

He suffered from an unlucky faculty—common to many men, especially Russians—the faculty of seeing and believing in the possibility of good and truth, and at the same time seeing too clearly the evil and falsity of life to be capable of taking a serious part in it.

But there was something in her higher than what surrounded her. There was in her the glow of the real diamond among glass imitations.

The coffee was never served. It boiled over, spattered them all, and wet a costly tablecloth and the baroness's dress. But it served the end that was desired for it gave rise to many jests and merry peals of laughter.

Boredom is desire seeking desire.

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.

Este afirmaba que los pecados de los hombres son enormes y que el castigo seria muy duro y la existencia muy miserable en la espera de aquel castigo