And what will be there, and what has there been here? Why was I so reluctant to part with life? There was something in this life I did not and do not understand.
("War and Peace")
More Quotes from Leo Tolstoy:
All the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human feelings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class -herself alone- had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.Leo Tolstoy
The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.
Leo Tolstoy
He remembered his mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible.
Leo Tolstoy
War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves.
Leo Tolstoy
No one is satisfied with his position, but every one is satisfied with his wit
Leo Tolstoy
In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man.
Leo Tolstoy
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