The idea, shared by many, that life is a vale of tears, is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority, the idea to which youth and health and riches incline you, that life is a place of entertainment. Leo Tolstoy More Quotes by Leo Tolstoy More Quotes From Leo Tolstoy If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because ...its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling - killing. Leo Tolstoy animallifedeath Slavery, you know, is nothing else than the unwilling labor of many. Therefore to get rid of slavery it is necessary that people should not wish to profit by the forced labor of others and should consider it a sin and a shame. But they go and abolish the external form of slavery and arrange so that one can no longer buy and sell slaves, and they imagine and assure themselves that slavery no longer exists, and do not see or wish to see that it does, because people still want and consider it good and right to exploit the labor of others. Leo Tolstoy wishdoepeople Good fiction doesn't come out of the basic conflict of good versus bad. Instead, it comes out of a conflict between good and good. Leo Tolstoy versusconflictfiction A Russian should rejoice if Poland, the Baltic Provinces, Finland, Armenia, should be separated, freed from Russia; so with an Englishman in regard to Ireland, India and other possessions; and each should help to do this, because the greater the state, the more wrong and cruel is its patriotism, and the greater is the sum of suffering upon which its power is founded. Therefore, if we really wish to be what we profess to be, we must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening, and help this forward with all our might. Leo Tolstoy russiagrowthsuffering A man's every action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds him and by his own body. Leo Tolstoy bodyactionmen To say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will continue burning as long as you live. Leo Tolstoy burninglovelong I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. Leo Tolstoy sorryinspirationalmean Human love serves to love those dear to us but to love one's enemies we need divine love. Leo Tolstoy loveenemyneeds Science is meaningless because it gives no answer to our question, the only question important for us: 'What shall we do and how shall we live?' Leo Tolstoy importantanswersgiving As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence - as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single individual. Leo Tolstoy heartmenlife The Christian churches and Christianity have nothing in common save in name: they are utterly hostile opposites. The churches are arrogance, violence, usurpation, rigidity, death; Christianity is humility, penitence, submissiveness, progress, life. Leo Tolstoy humilitychristianopposites The Brahmins say that in their books there are many predictions of times in which it will rain. But press those books as strongly as you can, you can not get out of them a drop of water. So you can not get out of all the books that contain the best precepts the smallest good deed. Leo Tolstoy readingrainbook If you no longer believe in the God in whom you believed in before, this comes from the fact that there was something wrong with your belief, and you must strive to understand better that which you call God. Leo Tolstoy faithbelievefacts He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began. Leo Tolstoy marriagelovelife As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields. A vegetarian diet is the acid test of humanitarianism. Leo Tolstoy passionvegetarian-dietpeace Why does man have reason if he can only be influenced by violence? Leo Tolstoy ubuntumenpeace The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. "To establish Anarchy." "Anarchy will be instituted." But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require protection from governmental power, and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power. Leo Tolstoy orderpeoplethinking If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect. Leo Tolstoy rewardscausesgoodness The Kingdom of God is Within You. Leo Tolstoy christ-consciousnessgnosisjesus she smiled at him, and at her own fears. Leo Tolstoy great-mensmilefear
