Leo Tolstoy
I have discovered nothing new; I have only perceived what I already knew.Collection: Discovery
Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.Collection: Sad
The true meaning of Christ's teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.Collection: Teaching
We live in this world like a child who enters a room where a clever person is speaking. The child did not hear the beginning of the speech, and he leaves before the end; and there are certain things which he hears but does not understandCollection: Inspirational
We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.Collection: Inspirational
Be bad, but at least don't be a liar, a deceiver!Collection: Liars
If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed.Collection: Life
In difficult circumstances always act on first impressions.Collection: Advice
Governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions.Collection: Government
Where did I get it from? Was it by reason that I attained to the knowledge that I must love my neighbour and not throttle him? They told me so when I was a child, and I gladly believed it, because they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason! Reason has discovered the struggle for existence and the law that I must throttle all those who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction reason makes. But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.Collection: Children
To abolish war it is necessary to abolish patriotism, and to abolish patriotism it is necessary first to understand that it is an evil. Tell people that patriotism is bad and most will reply, 'Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but mine is good patriotism.'Collection: War
What I think about vivisection is that if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit to their cruelty.Collection: Philosophical
School is established, not in order that it should be convenient for the children to study, but that teachers should be able to teach in comfort. The children's conversations, motion, merriment are not convenient for the teacher, and so in the schools, which are built on the plan of prisons, are prohibited.Collection: Teacher
In life, in true life, there can be nothing better than what is. Wanting something different than what is, is blasphemy.Collection: True Life
The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.Collection: Ignorance
Remember that there is only one important time and it is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.Collection: Important
Art is a microscope which the artist fixes on the secrets of his soul, and shows to people these secrets which are common to all.Collection: Art
The recognition of the sanctity of the life of every man is the first and only basis of all morality.Collection: Men
To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in undeserved sufferings.Collection: Life
And where love ends, hate beginsCollection: Hate
A Gentleman is a man who will pay his gambling debts even when he knows he has been cheated.Collection: Men
Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.Collection: Problem
We spend our lives trying to unlock the mystery of the universe, but there was a Turkish prisoner, Bahá’u’lláh, in Akka, Palestine who had the Key.Collection: Keys
The teaching of the church, theoretically astute, is a lie in practice and a compound of vulgar superstitions and sorcery.Collection: Lying
People are always happy where there is love, because their happiness in in themselves.Collection: Happiness
There can be only one permanent revolution - a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.Collection: Men
Life is fragile and absurd.Collection: Life Is
Woman is more impressionable than man. Therefore in the Golden Age they were better than men. Now they are worse.Collection: Women
The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.Collection: Government
By words one transmits thoughts to another, by means of art, one transmits feelings.Collection: Art
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. A handsome woman talks nonsense, you listen and hear not nonsense but cleverness. She says and does horrid things, and you see only charm. And if a handsome woman does not say stupid or horrid things, you at once persuade yourself that she is wonderfully clever and moral.Collection: Clever
... women are the pivot round which the world turns.Collection: Women
The struggle with evil by means of violence is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud, in order that there may be no rain.Collection: Rain
It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.Collection: Sleep
He remembered his mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible.Collection: Mother
In education, once more, the chief things are equality and freedom.Collection: Chiefs
To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.Collection: Truth
I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.Collection: Love
All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.Collection: Light
Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget.Collection: Love
It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.Collection: People
In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.Collection: Pride
The religious superstition is encouraged by means of the institution of churches, processions, monuments, festivities....The so-called clergy stupefy the masses....They befog the people and keep them in an eternal condition of stupefaction.Collection: Religious
We love people not so much for the good they've done us, as for the good we've done them.Collection: People
Everyone wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change himself.Collection: World
The truth is obtained like gold, not by letting it grow bigger, but by washing off from it everything that isn't goldCollection: Gold
A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea dropped out. He tried to pick it up, and split twenty. He tried to pick up the twenty, and split them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered the peas in all directions and ran awayCollection: Two
You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance-guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!Collection: War