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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
Life
Subject
People
Subjects
Single
Pins
Humanity
Peoples
Impossible
Appears
Words
Describe
History
Directly
Even
Catch

More quotes by Leo Tolstoy

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You say: I am not free. But I have raised and lowered my arm. Everyone understands that this illogical answer is an irrefutable proof of freedom.
Leo Tolstoy
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He could not be mistaken. There were no other eyes like those in the world. There was only one creature in the world who could concentrate for him all the brightness and meaning of life. It was she. It was Kitty.
Leo Tolstoy
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I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.
Leo Tolstoy
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For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
Leo Tolstoy
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The compassionate are not rich therefore, the rich are not compassionate.
Leo Tolstoy
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Woman is generally so bad that the difference between a good and a bad woman scarcely exists.
Leo Tolstoy
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Perhaps it is even more important to know what one should not think about than what one should think about.
Leo Tolstoy
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If you're not enjoying your work, you should either change your attitude, or change your job.
Leo Tolstoy
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Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.
Leo Tolstoy
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Are we not all flung into the world for no other purpose than to hate each other, and so to torture ourselves and one another?
Leo Tolstoy
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They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life.
Leo Tolstoy
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Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped loving the women you've chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you'll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you're old and good for nothing...Otherwise all that's good and lofty in you will be lost.
Leo Tolstoy
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If every man could act as he chose, the whole of history would be a tissue of disconnected accidents.
Leo Tolstoy
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it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.
Leo Tolstoy
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From the self-confidence with which he spoke no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.
Leo Tolstoy
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Himmlisch ist's wenn ich bezwungen Meine irdische Begier Aber doch wenn's nich gelungen Hatt' ich auch recht huebsch Plaisir! Loosely translated: It is heavenly, when I overcome My earthly desires But nevertheless, when I'm not successful, It can also be quite pleasurable.
Leo Tolstoy
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Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth.
Leo Tolstoy
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To destroy governmental violence, only one thing is needed: It is that people should understand that the feeling of patriotism, which alone supports that instrument of violence, is a rude, harmful, disgraceful, and bad feeling, and, above all, is immoral.
Leo Tolstoy
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These joys were so trifling as to be as imperceptible as grains of gold among the sand, and in moments of depression she saw nothing but the sand yet there were brighter moments when she felt nothing but joy, saw nothing but the gold.
Leo Tolstoy
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We're asleep until we love.
Leo Tolstoy