"De Gustibus", line 586.
Men and Women (1855)
Variant: Progress, man’s distinctive mark alone,
Not God’s, and not the beasts’: God is, they are,
Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 140.
“A solitary man is a God, or a beast.”
The Sayings of the Wise (1555)
“Man cannot really help the world. God alone does that”
He who has created the sun and the moon, who has put love for their children in parents' hearts, endowed noble souls with compassion, and holy men and devotees with divine love. The man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself. There is gold buried in your heart, but you are not yet aware of it. It is covered with a thin layer of earth. Once you are aware of it, all these activities of yours will lessen. … Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then, through His grace, one realizes Him in course of time. God can be seen, one can talk to Him, as I am talking to you.
As quoted in Ramakrishna : Prophet of New India (1948) by Swami Nikhilananda, p. 80
Entry in Tolstoy's Diary http://www.linguadex.com/tolstoy/chapter1.htm (1 November 1910)
Context: God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him.
Or better yet:
God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part.
God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love.
God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists...
We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. All conclusions and guidelines based on this consciousness should fully satisfy both our desire to know God as such as well as our desire to live a life based on this recognition.
“The Earth's Creation is the glory of God, as seen from the works of Nature by Man alone.”
In the Introitus (Preface) from his late editions.
Original in Latin: "Finis Creationis telluris est gloria Dei ex opere Naturae per Hominem solum"
Variant translation: "The purpose of Creation is the glory of God, as can be seen from the works in nature by man alone."
Systema Naturae
A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593), The First and Introductory Treatise
