83 Quotes About Tolstoy

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.

Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy's Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day's work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city's reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty.

I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.

Art is bad when ‘you see the intent and get put off.’ (Goethe) In Tolstoy one is unaware of the intent, and sees only the thing itself. from the book, On Retranslating A Russian Classic Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The endless ocean was his sole companion , and on some deeply sentimental level, it seemed sufficient. Almost apt. He aligned himself with Thoreau and Tolstoy, he felt like their peers. The kinship with nature devoted humans to a mythical state, a heightened persona beyond the reach of mere mortals. At least that was what he told himself on the lonely nights when insomnia played on his fears and the howling wind pierced through his soul.

-Men De har virkelig lest meget; - der kan De se hvor skadelig det er!

Jeg hadde aldri et inntrykk av - og jg tror at jeg ikke tar feil - at Lev Nikolaevitsj ikke var særlig glad i å tale om litteratur; men han var alltid levende interessert i forfatterens person.

-Det er ikke sant, slikt skriver man bare i kloke bøker.