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Leo Tolstoy

Writer

Leo Tolstoy is celebrated as one of literature’s greatest minds, whose works explore the depths of human experience, morality, and society. His writing combines profound philosophical insight with keen observations of everyday life, revealing timeless truths about love, faith, and the human condition. The following quotes capture his wisdom, introspection, and the enduring relevance of his literary legacy.

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NOT YET RATED▼
I had begun to feel that life was a repetition of the same thing; that there was nothing new either in me or in him; and that, on the contrary, we kept going back as it were on what was old.
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Then he thought himself unhappy, but happiness was all in the future; now he felt that the best happiness was already in the past.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree.
From War and Peace
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Vronsky saw nothing and no one. He felt himself as a king, not because she had made an impression on Anna-he did not yet believe that-but because the impression she had made on him gave him happiness and pride.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.
From War and Peace
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
A little muzhik was working on the railroad, mumbling in his beard.
And the candle by which she had read the book that was filled with fears, with deceptions, with anguish, and with evil, flared up with greater brightness than she had ever known, revealing to her all that before was in darkness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out
forever.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Education
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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}
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Inspirational, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Without knowledge of what I am and why I am here, it is impossible to live, and since I cannot know that, I cannot live either. In an infinity of time, in an infinity of matter, and an infinity of space a bubble-organism emerges while will exist for a little time and then burst, and that bubble am I.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Toate familiile fericite se aseamănă între ele. Fiecare familie nefericită este nefericită în felul ei.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I'm like a starving man who has been given food. Maybe he's cold, and his clothes are torn, and he's ashamed, but he's not unhappy.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
All religious-moral questions are decided not by consideration of what is more advantageous, but by that which a man recognizes good and what is evil, what is a duty and what is not.
From The Inevitable Revolution
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
One must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm alive and it's not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die.'
'But what makes you live? With such thoughts, you'll sit without moving, without undertaking anything...'
'Life won't leave one alone as it is.
From War and Peace
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death, Life
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness...
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Everything I know, I know because of love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love.
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I had begun to feel that life was a repetition of the same thing; that there was nothing new either in me or in him; and that, on the contrary, we kept going back as it were on what was old.
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Then he thought himself unhappy, but happiness was all in the future; now he felt that the best happiness was already in the past.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree.
From War and Peace
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Vronsky saw nothing and no one. He felt himself as a king, not because she had made an impression on Anna-he did not yet believe that-but because the impression she had made on him gave him happiness and pride.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.
From War and Peace
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
A little muzhik was working on the railroad, mumbling in his beard.
And the candle by which she had read the book that was filled with fears, with deceptions, with anguish, and with evil, flared up with greater brightness than she had ever known, revealing to her all that before was in darkness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out
forever.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Education
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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}
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Inspirational, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Without knowledge of what I am and why I am here, it is impossible to live, and since I cannot know that, I cannot live either. In an infinity of time, in an infinity of matter, and an infinity of space a bubble-organism emerges while will exist for a little time and then burst, and that bubble am I.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Toate familiile fericite se aseamănă între ele. Fiecare familie nefericită este nefericită în felul ei.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I'm like a starving man who has been given food. Maybe he's cold, and his clothes are torn, and he's ashamed, but he's not unhappy.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
All religious-moral questions are decided not by consideration of what is more advantageous, but by that which a man recognizes good and what is evil, what is a duty and what is not.
From The Inevitable Revolution
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
One must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm alive and it's not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die.'
'But what makes you live? With such thoughts, you'll sit without moving, without undertaking anything...'
'Life won't leave one alone as it is.
From War and Peace
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death, Life
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness...
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Everything I know, I know because of love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love.
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I had begun to feel that life was a repetition of the same thing; that there was nothing new either in me or in him; and that, on the contrary, we kept going back as it were on what was old.
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?
From Семейное счастие
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Then he thought himself unhappy, but happiness was all in the future; now he felt that the best happiness was already in the past.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree.
From War and Peace
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Vronsky saw nothing and no one. He felt himself as a king, not because she had made an impression on Anna-he did not yet believe that-but because the impression she had made on him gave him happiness and pride.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.
From War and Peace
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
A little muzhik was working on the railroad, mumbling in his beard.
And the candle by which she had read the book that was filled with fears, with deceptions, with anguish, and with evil, flared up with greater brightness than she had ever known, revealing to her all that before was in darkness, then flickered, grew faint, and went out
forever.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Education
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
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}
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Inspirational, Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Without knowledge of what I am and why I am here, it is impossible to live, and since I cannot know that, I cannot live either. In an infinity of time, in an infinity of matter, and an infinity of space a bubble-organism emerges while will exist for a little time and then burst, and that bubble am I.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Toate familiile fericite se aseamănă între ele. Fiecare familie nefericită este nefericită în felul ei.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Happiness
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I'm like a starving man who has been given food. Maybe he's cold, and his clothes are torn, and he's ashamed, but he's not unhappy.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Relationships
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
All religious-moral questions are decided not by consideration of what is more advantageous, but by that which a man recognizes good and what is evil, what is a duty and what is not.
From The Inevitable Revolution
Topic: Religion
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
One must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm alive and it's not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die.'
'But what makes you live? With such thoughts, you'll sit without moving, without undertaking anything...'
'Life won't leave one alone as it is.
From War and Peace
Topic: Philosophical
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Death, Life
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness...
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
It's hard to love a woman and do anything.
From Anna Karenina
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
Everything I know, I know because of love.
From War and Peace
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
NOT YET RATED▼
I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love.
Topic: Love
Leo Tolstoy
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