“One is ashamed to say how little is needed for all men to be delivered from those calamities which now oppress them; it is only needful not to lie.”

—  Leo Tolstoy

Source: Patriotism and Christianity http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Patriotism_and_Christianity (1896), Ch. 17

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "One is ashamed to say how little is needed for all men to be delivered from those calamities which now oppress them; it…" by Leo Tolstoy?
Leo Tolstoy photo
Leo Tolstoy 456
Russian writer 1828–1910

Related quotes

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

“Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much: — surely that may be his epitaph of which he need not be ashamed.”

Robert Louis Stevenson book Across the Plains

Source: Across the Plains (1892), Ch. XII, A Christmas Sermon.

Iain Duncan Smith photo

“The government itself now had a view… which was to remain, and so now we need to change that position and actually deliver on this very clear mandate from the British people.”

Iain Duncan Smith (1954) British politician

Brexit: New PM 'should come from Leave camp' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36633595 BBC News (26 June 2016)
2016

Daniel Defoe photo

“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases - viz. they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent. Not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men.”

Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 1, Start in Life.

Billy Connolly photo

“Apparently, women need to feel loved to have sex, and men need to have sex to feel loved, so the basic act of continuing the species requires a lie from one of you.”

Billy Connolly (1942) British comedian

An Audience With Billy - 1985

Barbara Hepworth photo

“One of the mysteries is how the human mind can hear a piece of music, a symphony from the beginning to the end, before beginning; or see a sculpture finished all the way round, when it doesn't exist. Now these faculties are the sort faculties which are needed in sciences, math, and medicine and all kind of things. But if one has them, one has to learn to use them... You can't start with a block and say: 'Now it's going to dictate me.”

Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) English sculptor

You [the artist] dictate to it.
Source: 1961 - 1975, Art Talk, conversations with 15 woman artists', (1975), pp. 24-25

Paulo Freire photo

“Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in 'changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them';”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1, The Banking Concept of Education

Ron Paul photo

“Question: What about a tax to fund the war in Afghanistan?
Ron Paul: Oh no… We don't need any of those wars… You don't raise taxes, that will only encourage them, what we need is to take all this money away from them, and say, bring the troops home…”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Washington Journal, C-Span, December 3, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sL0ivIil3w
2000s, 2006-2009

Pierre Joseph Proudhon photo

“All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist

Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. I: "Method Pursued in this Work. The Idea of a Revolution"
Context: To name a thing is easy: the difficulty is to discern it before its appearance. In giving expression to the last stage of an idea, — an idea which permeates all minds, which to-morrow will be proclaimed by another if I fail to announce it to-day, — I can claim no merit save that of priority of utterance. Do we eulogize the man who first perceives the dawn?
Yes: all men believe and repeat that equality of conditions is identical with equality of rights; that property and robbery are synonymous terms; that every social advantage accorded, or rather usurped, in the name of superior talent or service, is iniquity and extortion. All men in their hearts, I say, bear witness to these truths; they need only to be made to understand it.

Steven Pressfield photo

“I approve of all you say, gentlemen. The fleet's needs are many and urgent. One, however, must take precedence. This item the men need before all, and we must get it for them without fail and without deferral. We must get the men a victory.”

Steven Pressfield book Tides of War

Alcibades, p. 245
Tides of War (2000)

Václav Havel photo

“What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

International Herald Tribune (29 October 1991)
Variant translation: If your heart is in the right place and you have good taste, not only will you pass muster in politics, you are destined for it. If you are modest and do not lust after power, not only are you suited to politics, you absolutely belong there.
Context: When a man has his heart in the right place and good taste, he can not only do well in politics but is even predetermined for it. If someone is modest and does not yearn for power, he is certainly not ill-equipped to engage in politics; on the contrary, he belongs there. What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.

Related topics