It is better to know a little truly good and necessary than a lot of mediocre and unnecessary things.

"Reading Circle"

Knowledge is only knowledge when it is acquired through the efforts of one’s thoughts, and not through memory.

"Reading Circle"

A thought only moves life when it is obtained by one’s own mind or even when it answers a question that has already arisen in the soul. An alien thought, perceived by the mind and memory, does not affect life and gets along with actions that are contrary to it.

"Reading Circle"

A scientist is one who knows a lot from books; educated - one who has mastered all the most common knowledge and techniques of his time; enlightened - one who understands the meaning his life.

"Reading Circle"

About faith

True religion is such an attitude established by a person to the infinite life around him, which connects his life with this infinity and guides his actions.

"Reading Circle"

The essence of any religion lies only in the answer to the question of why I live and what is my relationship to the endless world around me. There is not a single religion, from the most sublime to the crudest, that would not be based on this establishment of the relationship of man to the world around him.

"Reading Circle"

Faith is the understanding of the meaning of life and the recognition of the responsibilities arising from this understanding.

"Reading Circle"

People live by love; self-love is the beginning of death, love for God and people is the beginning of life.

"Reading Circle"

About the purpose of life

I would be the unhappiest of people if I had not found a goal for my life - a common and useful goal...

To live honestly, you have to struggle, get confused, fight, quit, and always struggle and lose. And calmness is spiritual meanness.

Letter from A.A. Tolstoy. October 1857

I was lonely and unhappy living in the Caucasus. I began to think in a way that only once in a lifetime people have the strength to think... It was both a painful and good time. Never, neither before nor after, have I reached such a height of thought... And everything that I found then will forever remain my conviction... I found a simple, old thing, I found that there is immortality, that there is love and that one must live for another, in order to be happy forever...

Letter from A.A. Tolstoy. April-May 1859

A revolution happened to me, which had been preparing in me for a long time and the makings of which had always been in me. What happened to me was that the life of our circle - the rich, the learned - not only became disgusting to me, but lost all meaning. I renounced the life of our circle.

"Confession". 1879

Each person is a diamond who can purify himself or not, to the extent that he is purified, eternal light shines through him, therefore, the job of a person is not to try to shine, but to try to purify himself.

If you don’t have the strength to burn and shed light, then at least don’t extinguish it.

"Reading Circle"

Imagine that the goal of life is your happiness, and life is cruel nonsense. Recognize what human wisdom, your mind, and your heart tell you: that life is a service to the one who sent you into the world, and life becomes a constant joy.

"Reading Circle"

The only happy periods of my life were those when I devoted my whole life to serving people. These were: schools, mediation, famine relief and religious relief.

...moral activity... constitutes the highest calling of man...

"About what is called art." 1896

About the word

One person will shout in a building filled with people: “We’re on fire!” - and the crowd rushes, and dozens, hundreds of people are killed.

Such is the obvious harm produced by the word. But this harm is no less great when we do not see the people who have suffered from our words.

"Reading Circle"

About upbringing and education

The basis of education is the establishment of an attitude to the beginning of everything and the resulting attitude of guidance of behavior.

"Reading Circle"

In order to raise a person fit for the future, it is necessary to educate him, keeping in mind a completely perfect Man - only then will the pupil be a worthy member of the generation in which he will have to live.

"Reading Circle"

I want education for the people only in order to save those drowning Pushkins, Ostrogradskys, Filarets, Lomonosovs. And they swarm in every school.

Both upbringing and education are inseparable. You cannot educate without passing on knowledge; all knowledge has an educational effect.

"About Education"

The first and most important knowledge, which is primarily taught to children and learning adults, is the answer to the eternal and inevitable questions that arise in the soul of every person who comes to consciousness. First: what am I and what is my relationship to the infinite world? And the second, which follows from the first: how should I live, what should always be considered good, under all possible conditions, and what should always, under all possible conditions, be considered bad?

"About Education"

If a teacher has only love for his work, he will be a good teacher. If a teacher has only love for the student, like a father or mother, he will be better than the teacher who has read all the books, but has no love for either the work or the students.

If a teacher combines love for his work and for his students, he is a perfect teacher.

"ABC. General notes for teachers"

... upbringing seems to be a complex and difficult matter only as long as we want, without educating ourselves, to raise our children or anyone else. If we understand that we can educate others only through ourselves, by educating ourselves, then the question of education is abolished and one question of life remains: how should we live ourselves? I don't know of a single act of raising children that doesn't include raising yourself.

About a human

People are like rivers: the water is the same in everyone and the same everywhere, but each river is sometimes narrow, sometimes fast, sometimes wide, sometimes quiet. So are people. Each person carries within himself the beginnings of all human properties and sometimes displays some, sometimes others, and is often completely unlike himself, remaining one and himself.

"Resurrection"

My whole idea is that if vicious people are connected with each other and constitute a force, then honest people need to do only the same.

"War and Peace". Epilogue. 1863–1868

About war

“Is it really cramped for people to live in this beautiful world, under this immeasurable starry sky? Is it really possible that, amid this charming nature, a feeling of malice, revenge or the passion of exterminating one’s own kind can be retained in a person’s soul?”

"Raid", 1853

“...war... an event contrary to human reason and all human nature.”

"War and Peace", 1863–1868

“After all, it is absolutely obvious that if we continue to live the same way as now, guided both in private life and in the life of individual states by one desire for the good of ourselves and our state, and we, as now, ensure this good with violence, then, inevitably increasing the means of violence against each other and state against state, we, firstly, will be more and more ruined, enduring b O most of its output goes to weapons; secondly, by killing the physically best people in wars against each other, we will degenerate more and more and morally fall and become corrupted.”

“Come to your senses!” 1904.

“I want love for peace to cease to be a timid aspiration of peoples who are horrified at the sight of the disasters of war, but so that it becomes an unshakable demand of an honest conscience.”

Interview with a French journalist

J. A. Bourdon (newspaper "Figaro").

We have gathered here to fight against war... we hope to defeat this enormous power of all governments, which have billions of money and millions of troops at their disposal... we have in our hands only one, but the most powerful weapon in the world - truth

Report prepared for the Peace Congress in Stockholm

For me, the madness and criminality of the war, especially recently, when I wrote and therefore thought a lot about the war, are so clear that apart from this madness and criminality I cannot see anything in it.

War is such an unjust and bad thing that those who fight try to drown out the voice of conscience within themselves.

About civilization

What is called civilization is the growth of humanity. Growth is necessary, you can’t talk about it whether it’s good or bad. It is there, there is life in it. Like the growth of a tree. But the bough or the forces of life growing into the bough are wrong and harmful if they absorb all the force of growth. This is with our false civilization.

About art and creativity

Poetry is a fire that lights up in a person’s soul. This fire burns, warms and illuminates. A real poet himself involuntarily and with suffering burns and burns others. And that's the whole point.

Art is one of the means of distinguishing good from evil, one of the means of recognizing the good.

For a work to be good, you must love the main, main idea in it. So, in “Anna Karenina” I loved the idea of ​​family...

The main goal of art... is to reveal, express the truth about the human soul... Art is a microscope that the artist points at the secrets of his soul and shows these secrets common to all people.

Yasnaya Polyana, Moscow

Without my Yasnaya Polyana, I can hardly imagine Russia and my attitude towards it. Without Yasnaya Polyana, I may see more clearly the general laws necessary for my fatherland, but I will not love it to the point of passion.

"Summer in the village." 1858

...the main secret is about how to make sure that all people do not know any misfortunes, never quarrel or get angry, but are constantly happy, this secret was, as he told us, written by him on a green stick, and this stick was buried with road, on the edge of the ravine of the old Order, in the place where I... asked in memory of Nikolenka to bury me... And how I then believed that there was that green stick on which was written something that should destroy all evil in people and give them great good, so I believe now that this truth exists and that it will be revealed to people and will give them what it promises.

"Memories". 1906

I remember that I had the opportunity to enter Moscow in a stroller with my father. It was a good day, and I remember my admiration at the sight of Moscow churches and houses, admiration caused by the tone of pride with which my father showed me Moscow.

"Memories". 1906

What a great spectacle the Kremlin presents! Ivan the Great stands like a giant in the midst of other cathedrals and churches... The white stone walls saw the shame and defeat of Napoleon's invincible regiments; the dawn of the liberation of Russia from the Napoleonic yoke rose at these walls, and over several centuries, within these same walls the beginning of the liberation of Russia from the power of the Poles was laid during the time of the Pretender; and what a wonderful impression this quiet river Moscow makes! She saw how, while still a village, unoccupied by anyone, she then became exalted. Having become a city, she saw all her misfortunes and glory and finally waited until her greatness. Now this former village ... has become the greatest and most populous city in Europe.

Student essay. 1837

About nature

As I approached Ovsyannikov, I looked at the lovely sunset. There is a gap in the piled-up clouds, and there, like a red, irregular corner, is the sun. All this above the forest, rye. Joyfully. And I thought: No, this world is not a joke, not a vale of testing only and transition to a better, eternal world, but this is one of the eternal worlds, which is beautiful, joyful and which we not only can, but must make more beautiful and joyful for those living with us and for those who will live in it after us.

The purest joy, the joy of nature.

...friend - good; but he will die, he will leave somehow, you won’t be able to keep up with him; and the nature to which he married through a deed of sale or from which he was born by inheritance is even better. Its own nature. And she is cold, and taciturn, and important, and demanding, but on the other hand, this is the kind of friend whom you will not lose until death, and even if you die, you will still go into her.

Now it’s summer and a lovely summer, and I, as usual, am overwhelmed by the joy of carnal life and forget my work. This year I struggled for a long time, but the beauty of the world defeated me. And I enjoy life and do almost nothing else.

Nature enters man through both breath and food, so that man cannot help but feel part of it and part of himself.

The work of life, the purpose of its joy. Rejoice in the sky, in the sun. On the stars, on the grass, on the trees, on the animals, on the people. This joy is being violated, that is. You made a mistake somewhere - look for this mistake and correct it. This joy is most often violated by selfishness, ambition... Be like children - always rejoice.

In the morning, again, the play of light and shadow from the large, densely dressed birches of the prespekt on the tall, dark green grass, and forget-me-nots, and dull nettles, and that’s all - the main thing, the waving of the birches of the preshpect is the same as it was when I visited 60 years ago I noticed and fell in love with this beauty for the first time.

... people live as nature lives: they die, are born, copulate, are born again, fight, drink, eat, rejoice and die again, and there are no conditions, except for those unchangeable ones that nature has laid down for the sun, grass, animals, trees. They have no other laws...

"Cossacks". 1863

Happiness is being with nature, seeing it, talking to it.

"Cossacks". 1863

About love, marriage, family

To love means to live the life of the one you love.

"Reading Circle"

Love destroys death and turns it into an empty ghost; it turns life from nonsense into something meaningful and makes happiness out of misfortune.

"Reading Circle"

If there are so many heads, so many minds, then there are so many hearts, so many kinds of love.

"Anna Karenina"

The true and lasting union of a man and a woman is only in spiritual communication. Sexual communication without spirituality is a source of suffering for both spouses.

"Reading Circle"

Apart from death, there is not a single act as significant, drastic, everything-changing and irrevocable as marriage.

We must always marry in the same way as we die, that is, only when it is impossible otherwise.

About the writers

I learn a lot from Pushkin, he is my father, and I need to learn from him.

S. A. Tolstaya. Diaries. 1873

I also read Herzen’s “From the Other Shore” and also admired it. It would be worth writing about him so that people of our time would understand him. Our intelligentsia has degenerated so much that it is no longer able to understand him. He is already waiting for his readers ahead. And far above the heads of the present crowd he conveys his thoughts to those who will be able to understand them.

We had Chekhov and I liked him. He is very gifted, and his heart must be kind, but he still does not have his own definite point of view.

I am very grateful to you for such an interesting and wonderful study about Sylvester. Judging by it, I can guess what treasures - the likes of which no other nation has - are hidden in our ancient literature. And how true is the instinct of the people, pulling them towards the ancient Russian and repelling them from the new.

About silence, verbosity and slander

People learn how to speak, but the main science is how and when to remain silent.

"Path of Life"

Speak only about what is clear to you, otherwise remain silent.

"On every day"

If you regret not speaking once, then you will regret not speaking a hundred times.

"Reading Circle"

It is true that where there is gold, there is also a lot of sand; but this cannot in any way be a reason to say a lot of stupid things in order to say something smart.

"What is art?"

The one who has nothing to say speaks the most.

"Reading Circle"

Silence is often the best answer.

"Path of Life"

People like slander so much that it is very difficult to resist doing something nice for your interlocutors: not condemning a person.

"Reading Circle"

The most striking statements and quotes from Leo Tolstoy, which will reveal him to you from a new side

Vladimir Nabokov used an interesting technique in his lectures - he closed all the curtains in the room, creating complete darkness. When the phrase “In the firmament of Russian literature, this is Gogol” was heard in the hall, a lamp at the end of the room flashed. “This is Chekhov,” a star lit up on the ceiling. “This is Dostoevsky,” Nabokov switched the switch. “But this is Tolstoy!” - Nabokov opened the curtains, and the room was flooded with bright sunlight.

Leo Tolstoy refused the Nobel Prize, hated money and took the side of the peasants. He was an ardent opponent of government and was the first to renounce copyright, and was excommunicated for rejecting religious authorities.

We have collected 25 of the most striking quotes from Leo Tolstoy:

Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.

The strength of the government rests on the ignorance of the people, and it knows this and therefore will always fight against enlightenment. It's time for us to understand this.

Everything comes to those who know how to wait.

All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.

We are only tormented by the past and spoil our future because we are not occupied with the present. The past was, there is no future, there is only one present.

It always seems that they love us because we are so good. But we don’t realize that they love us because those who love us are good.

It's easier to live without love. But without it there is no point.

One of the most common misconceptions is to consider people good, evil, stupid, smart. Man flows, and he has all the possibilities: he was stupid, he became smart, he was angry, he became kind and vice versa. This is the greatness of man. And you can’t judge a person based on this. You condemned, but he is already different.

I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.

The world moves forward thanks to those who suffer.

Strong people are always simple.

A wise man demands everything only from himself, but an insignificant person demands everything from others.

The greatest truths are the simplest.

The point is not to know a lot, but to know the most necessary of all that can be known.

Happiness does not lie in always doing what you want, but in always wanting what you do.

People often pride themselves on the purity of their conscience simply because they have a short memory.

There is no scoundrel who, having searched, would not find scoundrels in some respect worse than himself and who therefore could not find a reason to be proud and pleased with himself.

One of the most amazing misconceptions is that a person’s happiness lies in doing nothing.

Evil is only inside us, that is, where it can be taken out from.

A person should always be happy, if happiness ends, look where you went wrong.

I am sure that the meaning of life for each of us is simply to grow in love.

Everyone is making plans, and no one knows whether he will survive until the evening.

There are no conditions to which a person cannot get used, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives the same way.

Happiness comes more willingly into a home where a good mood always reigns.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is one of the most famous Russian writers. Participant in the defense of Sevastopol. Educator, publicist, thinker, whose authoritative opinion caused the emergence of a new religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, honorary academician in the category of fine literature. During his lifetime, he was recognized as the patriarch of Russian literature, whose work marked a new stage in the development of world realism, becoming a bridge between the traditions of the classic novel of the 19th century and the literature of the 20th century. Tolstoy had a huge influence on the evolution of European humanism. His works have been filmed many times and staged on stages all over the world.

What begins in anger ends in shame.

Salvation does not lie in rituals, sacraments, or in the confession of this or that faith, but in a clear understanding of the meaning of one’s life.

The unspoken word is golden.

Thought is the beginning of everything. And thoughts can be controlled. And therefore, the main thing to improve is to work on thoughts.

In a moment of indecision, act quickly and try to take the first step, even if it’s the wrong one.

Happiness is pleasure without remorse.

Aphorisms are perhaps the best form for presenting philosophical opinions.

I haven't eaten meat for almost a year now and I feel great. To think that meat is necessary is nonsense. This is just the opinion of science, and science is always happy to seize on any absurdity. Half the world does not eat meat - and lives well.

The word is a great thing. Great because with a word you can unite people, with a word you can separate them, with a word you can serve love, but with a word you can serve enmity and hatred. Beware of such a word that divides people.

Strong people are always simple.

We often repeat that a person is judged by his deeds, but sometimes we forget that a word is also an action. A person's speech is a mirror of himself. Everything false and deceitful, vulgar and vulgar, no matter how we try to hide it from others, all emptiness, callousness or rudeness breaks through in speech with the same force and obviousness with which sincerity and nobility, the depth and subtlety of thoughts and feelings are manifested.

The main rule is to come up with as many activities as possible for yourself.

Crazy people are always better than healthy people in achieving their goals. This happens because for them there are no moral barriers, no shame, no justice, or even fear.

The more love a person shows, the more people love him. And the more he is loved, the easier it is for him to love others.

By killing animals for food, a person suppresses the highest spiritual feelings in himself - compassion and pity for other living beings like him - and, overstepping himself, hardens his heart. How can we hope for peace and prosperity on earth if our bodies are living graves in which slaughtered animals are buried?

The only condition on which success depends is patience.

Love is a priceless gift. This is the only thing we can give and yet you still have it.

Happiness comes more willingly into a home where a good mood always reigns.

A person is like a fraction: the denominator is what he thinks about himself, the numerator is what he really is. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.

Power does not spoil a person, a person is spoiled by the fear of losing power.

Happiness does not lie in always doing what you want, but in always wanting what you do.

It is not beauty that causes love, but love that makes us see beauty.

Children are more moral, much more insightful than adults, and they, often without showing it or even realizing it, see not only the shortcomings of their parents, but also the worst of all shortcomings - the hypocrisy of their parents, and lose respect for them...

What we say is nothing compared to what we feel.

People learn how to speak, but the main science is how and when to remain silent.

The battle is won by the one who is determined to win it.

A cowardly friend is worse than an enemy, because you fear an enemy, but rely on a friend.

The most common and widespread reason for lying is the desire to deceive not people, but oneself.

Any discussion about love destroys love.

Knowing each other too much or too little equally hinders intimacy.

We are only tormented by the past and spoil our future because we are not occupied with the present. The past was, there is no future, there is only one present.

Do you think war is necessary? Wonderful. Who preaches war - to a special, advanced legion and to storm, to attack, ahead of everyone.

One of the most common temptations that leads to the greatest disasters is the temptation to say: “everyone does it.”

The property of love is precisely that it gives benefit to the one who experiences it.

Kindness is for the soul what health is for the body, but often our good qualities harm us more in life than bad ones.

Why is gambling prohibited, but women in provocative outfits are not prohibited? They are a thousand times more dangerous!

Do good in secret and regret it when they find out about it, and you will learn the joy of doing good.

We must always marry in the same way as we die, that is, only when it is impossible otherwise.

The hypocrisy of people who cannot kill animals, but do not refuse to eat them, is great and unforgivable.

Act as if you are alone in this world, and people will never know about your action.

All great changes in the life of one person, as well as of all humanity, begin and are accomplished in thought. In order for a change of feelings and actions to occur, a change of thought must first occur.

Dissatisfaction with oneself is a necessary condition for a rational life. Only this dissatisfaction motivates us to work on ourselves.

The more beautiful a woman is, the smarter she should be. For only with her mind can she resist the harm that beauty brings her.

Speak only about what is clear to you, otherwise remain silent. It’s not shameful or harmful not to know... but it’s shameful and harmful to pretend that you know what you don’t know.

You often hear young people say: I don’t want to live in someone else’s mind, I’ll think it over myself. Why should you think about what you have thought about? Take what is ready and move on. This is the strength of humanity.

The one who has nothing to say talks the most.

This is the most terrible reasoning: if I can’t do everything, then I won’t do anything.

Quotes 43 097

Many of us know Leo Tolstoy as a great Russian writer, author of short stories, novels and novels. But only a few today know him as the man who compiled the very first collection, which included selected wise thoughts of famous sages and writers - and he himself repeatedly reread the sayings he collected, advising others to do the same. However, the statements of Leo Tolstoy himself could well become such a collection.

The strength of the government rests on the ignorance of the people, and it knows this and therefore will always fight against enlightenment. It's time for us to understand this.

Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.

Everything comes to those who know how to wait.

I am seriously convinced that the world is ruled by completely crazy people.

Strong people are always simple.

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door. If everyone does this, the whole street will be clean.

It always seems that they love us because we are so good. But we don’t realize that they love us because those who love us are good.

It's easier to live without love. But without it there is no point.

I don't have everything I love. But I love everything I have.

The world moves forward because of those who suffer.

The greatest truths are the simplest.

The point is not to know a lot, but to know the most necessary of all that can be known.

People often pride themselves on the purity of their conscience simply because they have a short memory.

There is no scoundrel who, having searched, would not find scoundrels in some respect worse than himself and who therefore could not find a reason to be proud and pleased with himself.

Evil is only inside us, that is, where it can be taken out from.

A person should always be happy; If happiness ends, look where you went wrong.

I am sure that the meaning of life for each of us is simply to grow in love.

Everyone is making plans, and no one knows whether he will survive until the evening.

There are no conditions to which a person cannot get used, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives the same way.

One of the most amazing misconceptions is that a person’s happiness lies in doing nothing.

A thick tree began with a thin twig. The nine-story tower began with the laying of small bricks. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Be attentive to your thoughts - they are the beginning of actions.

In order for the situation of people to become better, it is necessary for the people themselves to become better. This is the same truism as the fact that in order for a vessel of water to heat up, all its drops must be heated.

Describing people's lives in such a way as to stop the description at marriage is the same as, when describing a person's journey, stopping the description at the place where the traveler fell among the robbers.

Happy is he who is happy at home.

The eternal mistake that people make is imagining happiness as the fulfillment of a desire.