1,507 Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

He imposes the cross. He also gives the strength

Mento mori—remember death! These are important words. If we kept in mind that we will soon inevitably die, our lives would be completely different. If a person knows that he will die in a half hour, he certainly will not bother doing trivial, stupid, or, especially, bad things during this half hour. Perhaps you have half a century before you die—what makes this any different from a half hour?

Tako čine rijetki snažni i dosljedni ljudi. Shvativši svu glupost šale kojoj su oni predmet i shvativši da su blaga umrlih veća od blaga živih te da je najbolje od svega ne postojati, tako i čine te smjesta završavaju s tom glupom šalom kojim god sredstvom: omča oko vrata, voda, nož kojim probijaju srce, vlakovi na željezničkim prugama.

A cigar is a sort of thing, not exactly a pleasure, but the crown and outward sign of pleasure.

Throughout the whole time that Grandmama's body was in the house I was oppressed with the fear of death, for the corpse served as a forcible and disagreeable reminder that I too must die one day -- a feeling which people often mistake for grief.

إن قربى المرء من الله تكون بقدر سمو اعتقاده به تعالى، فكلما سما اعتقاد المرء بالله كلما كان أقرب منه وأدنى لتقليد كماله-جل شأنه- والتأسي برحمته ومحبته للإنسان.

Occasionally she glanced at him, asking with her glance, 'Is this what I think?' "I understand,' she said, blushing. "What is this word?' he said, pointing to the "n' that signified the word "never." .... She wrote: t, I, c,g,n,o,a.

Elena Pavlovna was for him [Tsar Nicholas I] the personification of those empty people who talked not only about science and poetry, but also about governing people, imagining that they could govern themselves better than he, Nicholas, governed them.

Don't steal sweet rolls.