Leo Tolstoy quotes

“He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“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

“We lost because we told ourselves we lost.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“The law condemns and punishes only actions within certain definite and narrow limits; it thereby justifies, in a way, all similar actions that lie outside those limits.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume the responsibility of starting it.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“We must not only cease our present desire for the growth of the state, but we must desire its decrease, its weakening.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“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

“War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.”

— Leo Tolstoy