Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.
Leo Tolstoy Quotes
You shouldn’t surrender to whatever suffering comes your way. You have to say to yourself, ‘You, suffering, want me to surrender, to say to myself that I’m unhappy. No. Pressure me all you want. I will endure it all, and in suffering itself I will find consolation.’
—Leo Tolstoy
There’s no harm in people praising you for your deeds. The harm is if you do things so that people will praise you.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you have time to think first before you speak, consider: is what you want to say worth it? Is it necessary? Could it hurt someone? And most of the time, if you think, you won’t speak.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you want to be free, first of all free yourself from your stomach.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you’re afraid of something, know that the cause of your fear is not outside you but within you.
—Leo Tolstoy
There’s nothing wrong with loving your family or your nation, and this happens with everyone. But it’s only harmless as long as you do no evil to others because of your love for your family or nation.
—Leo Tolstoy
One of humanity’s most dangerous superstitions is the belief that a large group of people, sometimes millions, can call themselves people of a single nation or a single state. People kill and rob each other because of this superstition.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you relate the truth with anger or passion you won’t convince anyone no matter how obvious to you the truth you’re relating is. Relate the truth with kindness and the stupidest person in the world will understand you.
—Leo Tolstoy
The kinder and more rational a person is, the more he recognizes himself in others. A stupid, unkind person thinks that all other people are alien to him. A wise and kind person knows that the most valuable thing within him is also within every other person.
—Leo Tolstoy
Love people and animals and you will experience overwhelming joy from being with them.
—Leo Tolstoy
Never listen to people who speak badly of others and good of you.
—Leo Tolstoy
Money is a new form of slavery, distinguishable from the old simply by the fact that there’s no human relation between master and slave.
—Leo Tolstoy
Live so that it doesn’t matter to you whether you conceal or reveal your acts to others.
—Leo Tolstoy
My unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders.
—Leo Tolstoy
The more you boast, the more shame you bring upon yourself.
—Leo Tolstoy
Surrendering your thinking to someone else is a more humiliating slavery than surrendering your body to someone.
—Leo Tolstoy
If you understand that your central task in life is love, then when you interact with someone you won’t think about how he might be useful to you, but rather how you might be useful to him. Just do this and you’ll succeed in everything far more than if you worry about yourself.
—Leo Tolstoy
Rule your thoughts if you want to reach your goal.
—Leo Tolstoy
Instead of marrying in order to increase the number of children it would be far simpler to support the millions of children now dying everywhere.
—Leo Tolstoy
We don’t and can’t know what happiness for all people consists of, but we know full well that gaining this common happiness is possible only through the eternal law of kindness, revealed through human wisdom and residing in the hearts of all people.
—Leo Tolstoy
All people are heading towards God, towards the truth, and they’ll all come together one day.
—Leo Tolstoy
The more a person is satisfied with himself, the less there is about him to be satisfied with.
—Leo Tolstoy
Freethinkers use their minds without prejudice and fear to understand things that clash with their own customs or beliefs. It’s rare but essential.
—Leo Tolstoy
You’ll never recognize God if you believe everything people tell you about God.
—Leo Tolstoy
Just as a candle only burns when the wax from which it is made is expended, so life is only real when it is expended for others.
—Leo Tolstoy
An argument never persuades anyone; it divides and embitters people.
—Leo Tolstoy
Since we all know how weak people are whose lives are easy it’s clear how essential trials are, yet we complain when we have to endure them.
—Leo Tolstoy
In our age the greatest and most harmful crimes aren’t those that are committed occasionally, but those that are committed every day without being recognized as crimes.
—Leo Tolstoy
Only delusions and lies require artificial support. Truth can stand alone. Therefore the true word has no need of superficial, solemn ceremonies. Only lies need such devices.
—Leo Tolstoy
When people study for themselves, what they learn is always useful; if they study to achieve praise, it has less value; if they study for the sake of money, what they learn is always harmful.
—Leo Tolstoy