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The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship to the infinite universe that surrounds me?

Leo Tolstoy

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Leo Tolstoy
Age: 82 †
Born: 1828
Born: January 1
Died: 1910
Died: January 1
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Lev Nikolaevich
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Лев Николаевич
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Religion
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Lies
Relationship
Surrounds
Question
Solely
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Surround
Lying
Essence

More quotes by Leo Tolstoy

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Three things are needed to educate the peasantry: schools, schools, and schools.
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Reason unites us, not only with our contemporaries, but with men who lived two thousand years before us, and with those who will live after us.
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In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.
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If you do not know your place in the world and the meaning of your life, you should know there is something to blame and it is not the social system, or your intellect, but the way in which you have directed your intellect.
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The true meaning of Christ's teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.
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The most important of all sciences man can and must learn is the science of living so as to do the least evil and the greatest possible good.
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After the doctor's departure Koznyshev felt inclined to go to the river with his fishing rod. He was fond of angling, and seemed proud of being able to like such a stupid occupation.
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but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.
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I am sure that nothing has such a decisive influence upon a man's course as his personal appearance, and not so much his appearance as his belief in its attractiveness or unattractiveness.
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My piece of bread only belongs to me when I know that everyone else has a share, and that no one starves while I eat.
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War is not courtesy but the most horrible thing in life and we ought to understand that, and not play at war. We ought to accept this terrible necessity sternly and seriously. It all lies in that: get rid of falsehood and let war be war and not a game.
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I don't think badly of people. I like everybody, and I'm sorry for everybody.
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When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to her who suffers, and try to help her.
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As often happens between men who have chosen different pursuits, each, while in argument justifying the other's activity, despised it in the depth of his heart.
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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?
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But men are now united in states that work is done why now maintain exclusive devotion to one's own state, when this produces terrible evils for all.
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I'll tell you truly: I value my thought and work terribly, but in essence - think about it - this whole world of ours is just a bit of mildew that grew over a tiny planet. And we think we can have something great - thoughts, deeds! They're all grains of sand
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.
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The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.
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the same question arose in every soul: For what, for whom, must I kill and be killed?... p982
Leo Tolstoy