Leo Tolstoy: Trending quotes

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Leo Tolstoy: 912 quotes64 likes

“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.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“It is remarkable that since Nekhludoff understood that he was disgusted with himself, others ceased to be repulsive to him.”

Leo Tolstoy book Resurrection

Source: Resurrection (1899), Ch. 33

“Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."

- Anna Karenina {Anna Karenina}”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“In Nekhludoff, as in all people, there were two beings; one spiritual, who sought only such happiness for himself as also benefited others; and the animal being, seeking his own happiness for the sake of which he is willing to sacrifice that of the world.”

Leo Tolstoy book Resurrection

Source: Resurrection (1899), Ch. 14

“To get rid of an enemy one must love him.”

Leo Tolstoy

“Three years ago he was an honest, self-denying youth, ready to devote himself to every good cause; now he was a corrupt and refined egotist, given over to personal enjoyment. … And all this terrible transformation took place in him only because he ceased to have faith in himself, and began to believe in others.”

Leo Tolstoy book Resurrection

Source: Resurrection (1899), Ch. 13

“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему.
Pt. I, ch. 1
Variant translations: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Variant: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)

“If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”

Leo Tolstoy book The Kreutzer Sonata

Variant: What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.
Source: The Kreutzer Sonata

“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 book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

(voice of Anna) C. Garnett, trans. (New York: 2003), Part 7, Chapter 24 p. 685
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)

“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy

Source: Essays, Letters and Miscellanies

“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”

Leo Tolstoy

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“If you want to be happy, be.”

Leo Tolstoy

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 352; this statement appears in late 20th century inspirational books, but with no known citation to original material by Tolstoy.
Disputed

“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

“Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina