Quotes from Leo Tolstoy

you might be persuaded there is an after-life not by arguments, but by going through life hand-in-hand with somebody, and all at once that somebody vanishes there, into nowhere, and you are left standing over the abyss, staring down into it. And I have stared down into it...

Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light on all around her.

Animalele par s? ?tie c? progenitura le perpetueaz? specia ?i respect? o anumit? lege în acest sens.Numai omul nu ?tie asta ?i nici nu vrea.Singura lui grij? este s? guste din cât mai multe pl?ceri.

There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot accustom himself, especially if he sees that every one around him lives in the same way.

Meditations or discussions about art are the most useless pastimes known. Those who really know art know that art can speak well with its own language, and that to speak about art with words is useless. Most people who speak about art do not understand or feel real art.

En la "tierra", precisamente ne esta tierra —digo señalando la campiña— no existe la verdad, todo es mal y mentira

It was a warm, rainy, autumnal day. The wide expanse that opened out before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the bridge, was at times veiled by a diaphanous curtain of slanting rain, and then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished. Down

Aparte de las conjeturas sobre los posibles traslados y ascensos que podrían resultar del fallecimiento de Ivan Ilich, el sencillo hecho de enterarse de la muerte de un allegado suscitaba en los presentes, como siempre ocurre, una sensación de complacencia, a saber: «el muerto es él; no soy yo».

Anything loved so much, with a daily effort, grows.

That's how it is, dear fellow. Fate looks for a head. But we are always judging, 'that's not well—that's not right!' Our luck is like water in a dragnet: you pull at it and it bulges, but when you've drawn it out it's empty! That's how it is.

Goethe says: truth repels, but delusion attracts, because truth presents us as limited, while delusion presents us as omnipotent. Moreover, truth repels because it is fragmented and incomprehensible, while delusion is coherent and logical.

Jamais le Christ n'aurait prononcé ces paroles s'il avait su le mauvais usage qu'on en ferait ; c'est tout ce qu'on a retenu de l'Évangile.

The worst mistake which was ever made in this world was the separation of political science from ethics. —PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Quos vult perdere dementat.

The question of other religions and their relations to Divinity I have no right to decide, and no possibility of deciding.

It seemed to him that he had been vicious only because he had somehow forgotten how good it is to be virtuous.

un trabajo que, según parece, es de provecho; luego, el descanso, la naturaleza, los libros, la música, el amor al prójimo; esa es la felicidad para mí y no pienso que haya nada superior a ello.

ALL happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

It was that if the chief proof of the Divinity was His revelation of what is right, how is it this revelation is confined to the Christian church alone? What relation to this revelation have the beliefs of the Buddhists, Mohammedans, who preached and did good too?

Urzeczywistnienie to przekona?o go o wiecznej omy?ce, jakiej ulegaj? ludzie, uto?samiaj?c szcz??cie ze spe?nieniem pragnie?.

Caio é um homem,os homens são mortais, logo Caio é mortal", parecera-lhe a vida toda muito lógico e natural se aplicado a Caio, mas certamente não quando aplicado a ele próprio.

Todo se hacía con las manos limpias, con camisas planchadas, con palabras francesas y, sobre todo, en la más alta sociedad, es decir, con la aquiescencia de las personas más influyentes.

She was in the same state of excitement, when the reasoning powers act quickly, as a man before battle, in conflict, in the dangerous and decisive moments of life - those moments when a man proves once and for all his mettle, and shows that his past life has not been lived in vain but has been a preparation for these moments.

if there are as many minds as there are men, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.