What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the willso fo the masses transferred to one person?...

Power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.

I do not live when I loose belief in the existence of God. I should long ago have killed myself had I not had a dim hope of finding Him. I live really live only...

But she was not even grateful to him for it; nothing good on Pierre’s part seemed to her to be an effort, it seemed so natural for him to be kind to everyone that there...

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

Boredom is desire seeking desire.

He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style.

Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth.

In the midst of winter, I find within me the invisible summer…

We are forced to fall back on fatalism as an explanation of irrational events (that is to say, events the reasonableness of which we do not understand). The more we try to explain such events...

One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees…

If a teacher has only love for the cause, it will be a good teacher. If a teacher has only love for student, as a father, mother, he will be better than the teacher, who...

But in the depths of his heart, the older he became, and the more intimately he knew his brother, the more and more frequently the thought struck him that this faculty of working for the...

Writing laws is easy, but governing is difficult.

I realized that even if all the people in the world from the day of creation found this to be necessary according to whatever theory, I knew that it was not necessary and that it...

He felt that he was himself and did not wish to be anyone else. He only wished now to be better than he had been formerly

Look at him! He said he was going home, but there he is crawling into a bog!” No, do not gloat, but give me your help and support.

It’s hard to love a woman and do anything.

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.

People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about “these days,” imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of “these days” and that human nature changes with the times.

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

Rest, nature, books, music…such is my idea of happiness.

Todas as famílias felizes se parecem, cada família infeliz é infeliz à sua maneira.

Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and agonies of the soul, but all the time his most tormenting tragedy has been, is, and will always be, the tragedy of the bedroom.

How can one be well…when one suffers morally?

it’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

Man is created for happiness, that happiness lies in himself, in the satisfaction of simple human needs; and that all unhappiness is due, not to privation but to superfluity.

They ought to find out how to vaccinate for love, like smallpox.

…there was apparent in all a sort of anxiety, a softening of the heart, and a consciousness of some great, unfathomable mystery being accomplished… the most solemn mystery in the world was being accomplished. Evening...

If you want to be happy, be.

Everything ends in death, everything. Death is terrible.

Rostov kept thinking about that brilliant feat of his, which, to his surprise, had gained him the St. George Cross and even given him the reputation of a brave man – and there was something...

This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer.

Next day at the review the Tsar asked Prince Andrey where he desired to serve; and Bolkonsky ruined his chances for ever in the court world by asking to be sent to the front, instead...

The true meaning of Christ’s teaching consists in the recognition of love as the supreme law of life, and therefore not admitting any exceptions.

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is...

Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself. Whether we shall be the happiest or the wretchedest of people–that’s in your hands.

Der Mensch, der einen wirklich künstlerischen Eindruck empfängt, hat das Gefühl, dass er das, was ihm die Kunst enthüllt, bereits kannte, aber außer Stande war, den Ausdruck dafür zu finden.

Everybody thinks of changing humanity, but nobody thinks of changing themselves.

My life came to a standstill. I could breathe, eat, drink and sleep, and I could not help doing these things; but there was no life, for there were no wishes the fulfilment of which...

In everything, almost in everything, I wrote I was guided by the need of collecting ideas which, linked together, would be the expression of myself, though each individual idea, expressed separately in words, loses its...

He was a passionate adherent of the new ideas and of Speransky, and the busiest purveyor of news in Petersburg, one of those men who choose their opinions like their clothes—according to the fashion—but for...

He felt that he could not turn aside from himself the hatred of men, because that hatred did not come from his being bad (in that case he could have tried to be better), but...

Everything was lit up by her. She was the smile that brightened everything around.

The worker picked up Pakhom’s spade, dug a grave, and buried him – six feet from head to heel, exactly the amount of land a man needs.

In my considered opinion, salary is payment for goods delivered and it must conform to the law of supply and demand. If, therefore, the fixed salary is a violation of this law – as, for...

Darkness had fallen upon everything for him; but just because of this darkness he felt that the one guiding clue in the darkness was his work, and he clutched it and clung to it with...

No matter what the work you are doing, be always ready to drop it. And plan it, so as to be able to leave it.

There will be today, there will be tomorrow, there will be always, and there was yesterday, and there was the day before…

Love those you hate you.