1,507 Quotes by 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

When Pierre came up, the count looked straight at him, but he looked at him with a gaze the intent and significance of which no man could fathom. Either these eyes said nothing, but simply looked because as eyes they must look at something, or they said too much

Three days and nights of awful suffering and death. Why, that may at once, any minute, come upon me too.

If there were no suffering, man would not know his limitations, would not know himself.

He saw either death or the approach of it everywhere. But his undertaking now occupied him all the more. He had to live his life to the end, until death came. Darkness covered everything for him; but precisely because of this darkness he felt that his undertaking was the only guiding thread in this darkness, and he seized it and held on to it with all his remaining strength.

На дне души каждого лежит та благородная искра, которая сделает из него героя; но искра эта устает гореть ярко, – придет роковая минута, она вспыхнет пламенем и осветит великие дела.("Севастопольские рассказы", Л.Н. Толстой)

A writer is dear and necessary for us only in the measure of which he reveals to us the inner workings of his very soul.

They say: misfortunes, sufferings...well, if someone said to me right now, this minute: do you want to remain the way you were before captivity, or live through it all over again? For God's sake, captivity again and horsemeat! Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost; but it's only here that the new and the good begins. As long as there's life, there's happiness. There's much, much still to come.

He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished; he died.