"But the peasants -- how do the peasants die?"

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Death and Dying · 0 fans >>
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"Though it is possible to utter words only with the intention to fulfill the will of God, it is very difficult not to think about the impression which they will produce on men and not to form them accordingly. But deeds you can do quite unknown to men, only for God. And such deeds are the greatest joy that a man can experience."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Deeds and Good Deeds · 0 fans >>
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"All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Family · 3 fans >>
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"He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Fashion · 2 fans >>
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"The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes -- love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and unjust."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Generals · 1 fans >>
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"In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Government · 1 fans >>
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"In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Greatness · 0 fans >>
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"There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness and truth."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Greatness · 6 fans >>
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"Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity."

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"Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised."

Tolstoy, Count Leo · Hypocrisy · 1 fans >>
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