Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy; 9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth28 August 1828
CountryRussian Federation
world has-beens
It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.
lying hate asking
What is bad? What is good? What should one love, what hate? Why live, and what am I? What is lie,what is death? What power rules over everything?" he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions except one, which was not logical and was not at all an answer to these questions. This answer was: "You will die--and everything will end. You will die and learn everything--or stop asking.
men slavery doe
Where there is a man who does not labor because another is compelled to work for him, there slavery is.
ideas people should
Many people have ideas on how others should change; few people have ideas on how they should change.
doe needs mates
Love does not exist. There exists the physical need for intercourse, and the rational need for a mate in life
life men names
If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
government institutions immoral
Governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions.
sad joy sorrow
Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
religious taken acceptance
Only greatly insolent people establish a religious law which is to be taken for granted by others, which should be accepted by everyone on faith, without any discussion or doubts. Why must people do this?
writing stories sides
I have found that a story leaves a deeper impression when it is impossible to tell which side the author is on.
lying passion government
Understand then all of you, especially the young, that to want to impose an imaginary state of government on others by violence is not only a vulgar superstition, but even a criminal work. Understand that this work, far from assuring the well-being of humanity is only a lie, a more or less unconscious hypocrisy, camouflaging the lowest passions we posses.
rewards causes goodness
If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.
mad responsible seeing
Am I mad, to see what others do not see, or are they mad who are responsible for all that I am seeing?
vegetarianism perfection humanity
Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere.