Leo Tolstoy
Russian novelist and moral thinker, 1828-1910
40 quotes.
Quotes by Leo Tolstoy
- A battle is won by him who is firmly resolved to win it.
- A good life is given only to those who make efforts to achieve it.
- All good things can be achieved only with effort.
- Anything you do should be filled with love.
- Do not expect some tangible reward for your goodness; your actions are their own reward.
- Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.
- Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
- Good books are a good influence. Good art is a good influence. Prayer is an influence as well. But the strongest influence is the example of a good life.
- Good things, once done, will never disappear, even if you forget about them.
- Grow spiritually and help others to do so; it is the meaning of life.
- Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.
- Honest work is much better than a mansion.
- Just imagine that the purpose of your life is your happiness only – then life becomes a cruel and senseless thing […] The meaning of life is to serve the force that sent you into the world. Then life becomes a constant joy.
- Let us forgive each other. If we can forgive each other, then we can live in peace.
- Love provides a person with the purpose of his life. Intellect shows him the means to achieve that purpose.
- Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.
- Only those live who do good.
- Our purpose is to make it a better and more joyous place to live, for those who live with us and those who come after us.
- Read less, study less, but think more. Learn, both from your teachers and from the books which you read, only those things which you really need and which you really want to know.
- Real love is not in words but in deeds, and only love can give real wisdom.
- Really true, good, and great things are always simple.
- Remember then: there is only one time that is important--Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.
- The deeds of a person become his life, become his fate. This is the law of our life.
- The greatest knowledge is self-knowledge.
- The more urgently you want to speak, the more likely it is that you will say something foolish.
- The most important person is the one you are with in this moment.
- The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
- The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
- There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
- There is only one enduring happiness in life—to live for others.
- There is only one way to be humble: do not think about yourself, but about how you can serve God and others.
- To be good and lead a good life means to give to others more than one takes from them.
- True faith is faith only if the actions of your life are in harmony with it and never contradict it.
- We suffer from the past, and we spoil our future because we neglect the present.
- When you approach a man, you should think not about how he can help you, but how you might serve and help him.
- When you have doubts about what to do, just imagine that you might die at the end of that same day, and then all your doubts will disappear.
- Work is the inevitable condition of human life, the true source of human welfare.
- Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
- You should do goodness without choosing to whom.
- Your life may be cut short at any time; therefore, your life should have a deep purpose, a significance that will not depend on whether it is short or long.