Top 500 Leo Tolstoy Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 10

51. “Knowledge is real knowledge only when it is acquired by the efforts of your intellect, not by memory.”

— Leo Tolstoy

52. “All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

— Leo Tolstoy

53. “For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.”

— Leo Tolstoy

54. “Man discovers truth by reason only, not by faith.”

— Leo Tolstoy

55. “When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to her who suffers, and try to help her.”

— Leo Tolstoy

56. “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.’”

— Leo Tolstoy

57. “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.”

— Leo Tolstoy

58. “The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.”

— Leo Tolstoy

59. “Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.”

— Leo Tolstoy

60. “Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”

— Leo Tolstoy

61. “Art lifts man from his personal life into the universal life.”

— Leo Tolstoy

62. “Our whole life is taken up with anxiety for personal security, with preparations for living, so that we really never live at all.”

— Leo Tolstoy

63. “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

64. “The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.”

— Leo Tolstoy

65. “Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”

— Leo Tolstoy

66. “It is easier to produce ten volumes of philosophical writings than to put one principle into practice.”

— Leo Tolstoy

67. “But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.”

— Leo Tolstoy

68. “Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.”

— Leo Tolstoy

69. “Faith is the force of life.”

— Leo Tolstoy

70. “Since corrupt people unite amongst themselves to constitute a force, then honest people must do the same.”

— Leo Tolstoy

71. “The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.”

— Leo Tolstoy

72. “One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken.”

— Leo Tolstoy

73. “If you make it a habit not to blame others, you will feel the growth of the ability to love in your soul, and you will see the growth of goodness in your life.”

— Leo Tolstoy

74. “In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.”

— Leo Tolstoy

75. “God is the same everywhere.”

— Leo Tolstoy

76. “Effort is not a means to lead us to happiness. Effort itself is happiness.”

— Leo Tolstoy

77. “Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man’s reasonable perception into feeling.”

— Leo Tolstoy

78. “It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he may sense the new plans and aims revealed to him by reason, he continues to plod along in old paths until his life becomes frustrating and unbearable – he finally makes the change only when his usual life can no longer be tolerated.”

— Leo Tolstoy

79. “History would be an excellent thing if only it were true.”

— Leo Tolstoy

80. “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

81. “Act as if you are, and you will become such.”

— Leo Tolstoy

82. “What is important is not the length of life, but the depth of life. What is important is not to make life longer, but to take your soul out of time, as every sublime act does.”

— Leo Tolstoy

83. “The kinder and more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness they can find in other people.”

— Leo Tolstoy

84. “The most mentally deranged people are certainly those who see in others indications of insanity they do not notice in themselves.”

— Leo Tolstoy

85. “The kinder and more intelligent a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy and dull things become cheerful.”

— Leo Tolstoy

86. “Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

— Leo Tolstoy

87. “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

88. “God cannot be understood by logical reasoning but only by submission.”

— Leo Tolstoy

89. “There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil.”

— Leo Tolstoy

90. “Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

— Leo Tolstoy

91. “The goal of our life should not be to find joy in marriage, but to bring more love and truth into the world.”

— Leo Tolstoy

92. “The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.”

— Leo Tolstoy

93. “Am I mad, to see what others do not see, or are they mad who are responsible for all that I am seeing?”

— Leo Tolstoy

94. “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

95. “Happiness is in your ability to love others.”

— Leo Tolstoy

96. “Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.”

— Leo Tolstoy

97. “My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.”

— Leo Tolstoy

98. “Here I am alive, and it’s not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over.”

— Leo Tolstoy

99. “But I’m glad you’ll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn’t want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don’t want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven’t I?”

— Leo Tolstoy

100. “I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.”

— Leo Tolstoy