1,507 Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

The animalism of the brute nature in man is disgusting', he thought, 'but as long as it remains in its naked form we observe it from the height of our spiritual life and despise it; and - whether one has fallen or resisted - one remains what one was before. But when that same animalism hides under a cloak of poetry and aesthetic feeling and demands our worship - then we are swallowed up by it completely and worship animalism, no longer distinguishing good from evil. Then it is awful!

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

A man could not be prevented from making himself a big wax doll, and kissing it. But if the man were to come with the doll and sit before a man in love, and begin caressing his doll as the lover caressed the woman he loved, it would be distastefulto the lover. Just such a distasteful sensation was what Mihailov felt at the sight of Vronsky’s painting: he felt it both ludicrous and irritating, both pitiable and offensive.

I must drink lots of tea or I cannot work.Tea unleashes the potential which slumbers in the depth of my soul.

But really, why should you distress yourself? Whoever stirs up the past — out with his eye! Who is not a sinner before God and to blame before the Tsar, as the saying is?

Todas as mulheres são mais materialistas do que os homens. Nós fazemos do amor algo enorme, mas elas sempre se mantém ‘terre-à-terre’.

Sou amigo da divisão do trabalho. Pessoas que não fazem nada devem fazer pessoas, enquanto as demais devem contribuir para a instrução e a felicidade delas. Eis o que penso. Para confundir esses dois ofícios, há uma multidão de amadores, a cujo número não pertenço.

Ninguém está satisfeito com os bens que possui, mas todos estão satisfeitos com a inteligência que têm.

He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror that seized on his heart. She was standing talking to a lady at the opposite end of the ground. There was apparently nothing striking either in her dress or her attitude. But for Levin she was as easy to find in that crowd as a rose among nettles. Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light all around her.