Collected Meditations
Showing 42 quotesMan lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.— Leo Tolstoy
If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state.— Leo Tolstoy
The law condemns and punishes only actions within certain definite and narrow limits; it thereby justifies, in a way, all similar actions that lie outside those limits.— Leo Tolstoy
Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself.— Leo Tolstoy
And all people live, Not by reason of any care they have for themselves, But by the love for them that is in other people.— Leo Tolstoy
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.— Leo Tolstoy
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.— Leo Tolstoy
All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do.— Leo Tolstoy
topics:
Death
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.— Leo Tolstoy
We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening.— Leo Tolstoy
One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.— Leo Tolstoy
The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.— Leo Tolstoy
War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of starting it.— Leo Tolstoy
topics:
War
Faith is the sense of life, that sense by virtue of which man does not destroy himself, but continues to live on. It is the force whereby we live.— Leo Tolstoy
topics:
Faith