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The subject of history is the life of peoples and of humanity. To catch and pin down in words--that is, to describe directly the life, not only of humanity, but even of a single people, appears to be impossible.

Leo Tolstoy

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Leo Tolstoy
Age: 82 †
Born: 1828
Born: January 1
Died: 1910
Died: January 1
Diarist
Esperantist
Essayist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Pedagogue
Philosopher
Playwright
Prosaist
Writer
Tolstoi
Tolstoy
Lev Nikolaevich
graf Tolstoĭ
Lev Nikolayevich
Count Tolstoy
Count Lev Tolstoy
Leo
graf Tolstoy
Lev
Count Tolstoy
Lev
graf Tolsztoj
Лев Николаевич
c граф Толстой
Lew
graf Tolstoi
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Lev Tolstoy
Count Leo Tolstoy
Words
Describe
History
Directly
Even
Catch
Life
Subject
People
Subjects
Single
Pins
Humanity
Peoples
Impossible
Appears

More quotes by Leo Tolstoy

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He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. Where is it? What death? There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light.
Leo Tolstoy
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I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.
Leo Tolstoy
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Both salvation and punishment for man lie in the fact that if he lives wrongly he can befog himself so as not to see the misery of his position.
Leo Tolstoy
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The activity of art is... as important as the activity of language itself, and as universal.
Leo Tolstoy
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Teach French and unteach sincerity.
Leo Tolstoy
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At that instant he knew that all his doubts, even the impossibility of believing with his reason, of which he was aware in himself, did not in the least hinder his turning to God. All of that now floated out of his soul like dust. To whom was he to turn if not to Him in whose hands he felt himself, his soul, and his love?
Leo Tolstoy
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In spite the mountains of books written about art, no precise definition of art has been constructed. And the reason for this is that the conception of art has been based on the conception of beauty.
Leo Tolstoy
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'Thou shalt not kill' does not apply to murder of one's own kind only, but to all living beings and this commandment was inscribed in the human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai.
Leo Tolstoy
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He had heard that women often love plain ordinary men, but he did not believe it, because he judged by himself and he could only love beautiful mysterious exceptional women.
Leo Tolstoy
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It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
Leo Tolstoy
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A person who has spoiled his stomach will criticize his meal saying that the food is bad the same thing happens with people who are not satisfied with their lives
Leo Tolstoy
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To speak of it would be giving importance to that which has none.
Leo Tolstoy
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Giving alms is only a virtuous deed when you give money that you yourself worked to get.
Leo Tolstoy
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Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.
Leo Tolstoy
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But if Christianity really gives peace, and we really want peace, patriotism is a survival from barbarous times, which must not only not be evoked and educated, as we now do, but which must be eradicated by all means, by means of preaching, persuasion, contempt, and ridicule.
Leo Tolstoy
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He is not apprehended by reason, but by life.
Leo Tolstoy
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We should show life neither as it is or as it ought to be, but only as we see it in our dreams.
Leo Tolstoy
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And whatever people might say about the time having come when young people must arrange their future for themselves, she could not believe it any more than she could believe that loaded pistols could ever be the best toys for five-year-old children.
Leo Tolstoy
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Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
Leo Tolstoy
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Yes, there is something in me hateful, repulsive, thought Ljewin, as he came away from the Schtscherbazkijs', and walked in the direction of his brother's lodgings. And I don't get on with other people. Pride, they say. No, I have no pride. If I had any pride, I should not have put myself in such a position.
Leo Tolstoy