War is the most painful act of subjection to the laws of God that can be required of the human will.
They had supper and went away, and Ivan Ilyich was left alone with the consciousness that his life was poisoned and was poisoning the lives of others, and that this poison did not weaken but penetrate...
There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth are absent
There are two sides to the life of every man, his individual life, which is the more free the more abstract its interests, and his elemental hive life in which he inevitably obeys laws laid down for h...
The rivalry of the European states in constantly increasing their forces has reduced them to the necessity of having recourse to universal military service, since by that means the greatest possible n...
The question of how things will settle down is the only important question...
The memories of home and of her children rose up in her imagination with a peculiar charm quite new to her, with a sort of new brilliance. That world of her own seemed quite new to her now so sweet an...
The heroine of my writings is She, whom I love with all the forces of my being, She who always was, is and will be beautiful, is Truth
The assertion that you are in falsehood and I am in truth ist the most cruel thing one man can say to another
The animalism of the brute nature in man is disgusting', he thought, 'but as long as it remains in its naked form we observe it from the height of our spiritual life and despise it; and - whether one...
Stepan Arkadyevitch had not chosen his political opinions or his views; these political opinions and views had come to him of themselves, just as he did not choose the shapes of his hat and coat, but...
She saw that they felt themselves alone in that crowded room. And Vronsky’s face, always so firm and independent, held that look that had struck her, of bewilderment and humble submissiveness, like th...
Rostov was not listening to the soldier. He looked at the snowflakes dancing above the fire and remembered the Russian winter with a warm, bright house, a fluffy fur coat, swift sleighs, a healthy bod...
Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me! thought Pierre. And all this they've caught and put in...
One of the most widespread superstitions is thatevery man has his own special, definite qualities; that aman is kind, cruel, wise, stupid, energetic, apathetic, etc.Men are not like that . . . Men are...
One man may not kill. If he kills a fellow-creature, he is a murderer. If two, ten, a hundred men do so, they, too, are murderers. But a government or a nation may kill as many men as it chooses, and...
Oh! How good it is to be your age! I remember, and I know that blue haze like the mist on the mountains of Switzerland. That mist which covers everything in that blissful time when childhood is just e...
Now every time he turned to her, he bent his head, as though he would have fallen at her feet, and in his eyes there was nothing but humble submission and dread. 'I would not offend you' his eyes seem...
My writing is like those little carved baskets made in prisons…
My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.