Which are your favorite Leo Tolstoy quotes?
Leo Tolstoy was one of the greatest writers of all time;
Born in Russia in September 1828, Tolstoy’s full name was ‘Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy’. And he first achieved success in the writing world during his twenties, when he published a trilogy of novels: ‘Childhood’, ‘Boyhood’ & ‘Youth’.
Today, he’s best known for the following novels:
- War & Peace
- Anna Karenina
We’ve put together this collection of the best Leo Tolstoy quotes:
52 Sensational Leo Tolstoy Quotes
1. “A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction.” – Leo Tolstoy
2. “All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.” – Leo Tolstoy
3. “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
4. “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.” – Leo Tolstoy
5. “If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” – Leo Tolstoy
6. “Just as one candle lights another and can light thousands of other candles, so one heart illuminates another heart and can illuminate thousands of other hearts.” – Leo Tolstoy
7. “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” – Leo Tolstoy
8. “Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.” – Leo Tolstoy
9. “The only thing that we know is that we know nothing and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.” – Leo Tolstoy
10th of 52 Leo Tolstoy Quotes
10. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” – Leo Tolstoy
11. “Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.” – Leo Tolstoy
12. “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.” – Leo Tolstoy
13. “And all people live, Not by reason of any care they have for themselves, But by the love for them that is in other people.” – Leo Tolstoy
14. “Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking…” – Leo Tolstoy
15. “I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.” – Leo Tolstoy
16. “In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” – Leo Tolstoy
17. “Life could be limitless joy, if we would only take it for what it is, in the way it is given to us.” – Leo Tolstoy
18. “Our body is a machine for living. It is organized for that, it is its nature. Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself.” – Leo Tolstoy
19. “Some mathematician said: ‘Pleasure lies not in discovering truth, but in seeking it.’” – Leo Tolstoy
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20. “The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” – Leo Tolstoy
21. “Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.” – Leo Tolstoy
22. “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” – Leo Tolstoy
23. “A truly wise man is always joyful.” – Leo Tolstoy
24. “Anything is better than lies and deceit!” – Leo Tolstoy
25. “Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.” – Leo Tolstoy
26. “If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one’s reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state.” – Leo Tolstoy
27. “Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?” – Leo Tolstoy
28. “Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.” – Leo Tolstoy
29. “Pay bad people with your goodness; fight their hatred with you kindness. Even if you do not achieve victory over other people, you will conquer yourself.” – Leo Tolstoy
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30. “Spring is the time of plans and projects.” – Leo Tolstoy
31. “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy
32. “We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” – Leo Tolstoy
33. “All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy
34. “Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver!” – Leo Tolstoy
35. “He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” – Leo Tolstoy
36. “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” – Leo Tolstoy
37. “It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.” – Leo Tolstoy
38. “One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love.” – Leo Tolstoy
39. “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.” – Leo Tolstoy
40th of 52 Leo Tolstoy Quotes
40. “The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life.” – Leo Tolstoy
41. “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” – Leo Tolstoy
42. “We lost because we told ourselves we lost.” – Leo Tolstoy
43. “All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” – Leo Tolstoy
44. “Boredom: the desire for desires.” – Leo Tolstoy
45. “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
46. “If you want to be happy, be.” – Leo Tolstoy
47. “Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” – Leo Tolstoy
48. “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.” – Leo Tolstoy
49. “Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.” – Leo Tolstoy
50. “The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.” – Leo Tolstoy
51. “There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.” – Leo Tolstoy
52. “When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you’d like them to be.” – Leo Tolstoy
Summary
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