Lev Tolstoy

Russia
9 Sep 1828 // 20 Nov 1910
Writer

Quotes

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Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy
If you're not enjoying your work, you should either change your attitude, or change your job
A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction
We should show life neither as it is or as it it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams
Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible
We lost because we told ourselves we lost
War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold
True life is lived when tiny changes occur
To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can't eat it
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays