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  • Leo Tolstoy Quotes   824
  • The best generals I have known were... stupid or absent-minded men. Not only does a good army commander not need any special qualities, on the contrary he needs the absence of the highest and best human attributes - love, poetry, tenderness, and philosophic inquiring doubt. He should be limited, firmly convinced that what he is doing is very important (otherwise he will not have sufficient patience), and only then will he be a brave leader. God forbid that he should be humane, should love, or pity, or think of what is just and unjust.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , Love Quotes , Stupid Quotes
  • And the light by which she had read the book filled with troubles, falsehoods, sorrow, and evil, flared up more brightly than ever before, lighted up for her all that had been in darkness, flickered, began to grow dim, and was quenched forever.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , Book Quotes , Light Quotes
  • Religions are the exponents of the highest comprehension of life... within a given age in a given society... a basis for evaluating human sentiments. If feelings bring people nearer to the religion's ideal... they are good; if these estrange them from it, and oppose it, they are bad.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , People Quotes , Feelings Quotes
  • 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? On condition that the person express the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , People Quotes , Historical Quotes
  • There is one thing, and only one thing, in which it is granted to you to be free in life, all else being beyond your power: that is to recognize and profess the truth.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , Granted Quotes
  • The error arises from the learned jurists deceiving themselves and others, by asserting that government is not what it really is, one set of men banded together to oppress another set of men , but, as shown by science, is the representation of the citizens in their collective capacity.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , Men Quotes , Errors Quotes
  • Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed. Patriotism is slavery.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Leo Tolstoy Quotes , War Quotes , Government Quotes