Quotes from Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

I often think that men don't understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

If you love me as you say you do, make it so that I am at peace.

Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts, , actions! They are all but grains of sand

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

Anything is better than lies and deceit!

There are no conditions to which a man cannot become used, especially if he sees that all around him are living in the same way.

Without the support from religion--remember, we talked about it--no father, using only his own resources, would be able to bring up a child.

Respect is an invention of people who want to cover up the empty place where love should be.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.

Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.

Perhaps it's because I appreciate all I have so much that I don't worry about what I haven't got.

And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful.

Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.

Toate familiile fericite se aseam?n? între ele. Fiecare familie nefericit? este nefericit? în felul ei.

There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.

That one must either explain life to oneself so that it does not seem to be an evil mockery by some sort of devil, or one must shoot oneself.

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.

And those who only know the non-platonic love have no need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of tragedy.

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.

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.

He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he had plucked, in which it was difficult for him to trace the beauty that had made him pick and so destroy it

Ah, if everyone was as sensitive as you! There's no girl who hasn't gone through that. And it's all so unimportant!

And where love ends, hate begins

It's hard to love a woman and do anything.