Leo Tolstoy: aphorisms, quotes, sayings. The wisest quotes from Leo Tolstoy that everyone should know
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 the attitude established by man towards his surroundings. endless life, 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 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
Every person is a diamond that can purify or not purify itself, to the extent that it is purified, it shines through it eternal light Therefore, a person’s job 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, and your reason, and your heart: that life is 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 the teacher has only love for the student, like a father, mother, he will better than that a 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 rudiments 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
“It is quite obvious that if we continue to live as we do now, leading both in private life and in life individual states with one desire for the good of ourselves and our state, and we will, as now, provide 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 physically in wars against each other the best people, 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 it is madness, the crime of war, especially in Lately when I wrote and therefore thought a lot about the war, they are so clear that I can’t see anything in it other than this madness and crime.
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 your Yasnaya Polyana I can hardly imagine Russia and my attitude towards it. Without Yasnaya Polyana I might see more clearly general laws, necessary for my fatherland, but I will not love it to the point of addiction.
"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 middle of other cathedrals and churches... 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 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 that 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 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 as well main science- 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 famous Russian writer of the late nineteenth century is Leo Tolstoy. Quotes and aphorisms, as Cortazar said, are needed in order not to say bad things about what someone has already managed to say well. The great Russian thinker was and remains unsurpassed in his ability to simply talk about family, love, and kindness. On the pages of any of his novels, the reader finds truths that should be known to everyone. But in order to reach them, the writer overcame a long, difficult path. The article contains some quotes from Leo Tolstoy.
Happy is he who is happy at home
Tolstoy's works are included in school curriculum. One of them tells about the author’s childhood, adolescence and youth. Quotes by Leo Tolstoy modern teenagers hardly stored in their memory. Yes and above the deep philosophical meaning Not every schoolchild thinks about his books. The serene life of children from high society XIX century.
However, the autobiographical book of the great classic should be re-read after graduation. Despite the immaturity of the main character, it contains the wisdom of a man who has seen life. This is a book about family. About how important it is to learn to understand and love loved ones. After all, as the great humanist said: “Happy is he who is happy at home.”
“Childhood” is the first work that Leo Tolstoy published. The writer's quotes about family are actively used by scholars in their speech. People who read little take them for folk aphorisms. But the most famous saying of Lev Nikolaevich about the family is known to everyone. Even for those who have not read Anna Karenina, it was on the first page of this novel that the author expressed one of the most brilliant thoughts in the history of mankind regarding the relationship between spouses.
Degree of truthfulness - level of morality
But let's get back to literary debut Tolstoy. When the book “Childhood” was published, which later became part of the famous trilogy, its author was only twenty-four years old. An aspiring writer saw his story on the pages of a literary magazine and did not recognize it. The censors found a lot of unreliable judgments in it, and as the author later expressed in a letter to one of his friends, they “disfigured” it. The same fate awaited “Adolescence”.
Quotes from Leo Tolstoy about life, love, and family could hardly be heard from the lips of one of his contemporaries at an evening party. Lev Nikolaevich had difficult relationship and with the church, and with the nobility, and even for some time with the Third Department.
But what could be suspicious and unreliable in the words that a person who has not known love is not capable of experiencing strong grief, that knowing each other too closely prevents distance, that living without love, although it is easier, does not make sense? Perhaps it’s all about the sincerity and honesty of the writer. Society was not ready for them. Tolstoy believed that without truth it is impossible to achieve moral perfection, to which he himself strived all his life.
Purity of family relationships
Tolstoy raised this topic not only in Anna Karenina, but also in his other works. But it was the novel about an unfaithful wife that caused a huge amount of controversy, which continues today, a hundred years or more after the death of the writer. What did the author of Anna Karenina want to say? Quotes from Leo Tolstoy are so common that it is sometimes difficult to remember which work a particular phrase belongs to. Meanwhile, not only excerpts from works of art are famous, but also excerpts from journalism. And even the words that Tolstoy uttered in conversations with critics and literary colleagues.
So, someone once asked the living classic about the meaning of the novel Anna Karenina. The writer uttered a phrase that later became world famous: “In order to answer this question, I will have to write another novel.”
But such a novel was never written. That’s why critics and literary scholars have been trying for many years to reveal the meaning of the brilliant book, analyzing the work as a whole and its individual fragments, quoting Tolstoy and trying to find something new between the lines. For ordinary readers, Anna Karenina is a novel about love, passion, family relationships, deceitful and cruel society.
Tolstoy and the peasantry
As you know, over the years the thinker became closer to the people. It is no coincidence that one of the heroes of the above-mentioned novel spent most of his time at work, not recognizing social entertainment. It's about about Levin, whose image, like the image of Bezukhov from the epic “War and Peace,” is partly autobiographical.
Tolstoy was involved in charity work. Not the one that was popular among the nobility - bright, beautiful, but often fake, for show. Author greatest novels XIX century he did good deeds, which is always difficult. Their basis was mercy. Leo Tolstoy spent two years in the Volga region during a terrible famine. The writer organized a fundraiser. As a result, more than two hundred canteens were opened.
About charity
And many years before Tolstoy visited the Volga lands, a dispute broke out between him and another classic of Russian literature, Turgenev, which grew into a long-term quarrel. The author of “Fathers and Sons” had the imprudence to boast in the presence of Lev Nikolaevich of his daughter, who was involved in charity work: the girl darned peasant clothes with her own hands. Tolstoy did not admire the good deeds performed by the daughter of his colleague, but said: “A dressed-up girl, holding pathetic cast-offs in her hands, plays her role insincerely.”
The books of this writer should be read and re-read. They contain answers to the questions that every person asks: “Who am I?”, “Why do I live?”, “What is my place in society?” Tolstoy's sayings are still relevant today. However, the correct thing to do is to find them yourself on the pages of imperishable novels.
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Exactly 133 years ago, the very talented and versatile writer Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born. The representative of the famous Tolstoy family has many stories, plays and novels to his name, but his most famous work became the fairy tale "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio."
Especially for you website I have selected 20 of the most interesting statements of this outstanding person.
- A good book is like a conversation with smart person. The reader receives from her knowledge and a generalization of reality, the ability to understand life.
- Knowledge is a tool, not a goal.
- The one who does nothing makes no mistakes, although this is his main mistake.
- Cowards speak most about courage, and scoundrels speak most about nobility.
- Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for a certain time, a goal for the year, for the month, for the week, for the day and for the hour and for the minute, sacrificing the lower goals to the higher ones.
- Patriotism does not mean only love for one’s homeland. This is much more... This is the consciousness of one’s inalienability from the homeland and an integral experience with it of its happy and unhappy days.
- Humanism is the only thing that probably remains from peoples and civilizations that have gone into oblivion: books, folk tales, marble sculptures, architectural proportions.
- The present day - in its complete characteristics - is understandable only when it becomes a link in a complex historical process.
Oh happiness
- A person must be happy. If he is unhappy, then he is to blame. And he is obliged to work on himself until he eliminates this inconvenience or misunderstanding.
- There are two desires, the fulfillment of which can constitute a person's true happiness - to be useful and to have a clear conscience.
- To be happy, you need to constantly strive for this happiness and understand it. It depends not on circumstances, but on yourself.
About art
- Art performs the work of memory: it selects the most vivid, exciting, significant from the flow of time and captures it in the crystals of books.
- The people are the judge of art. And the task of criticism- to be an exponent of the highest artistic demands of the people.
- In art there are always and at all times two motivating principles - knowledge and affirmation: knowledge of the mental nature of man and the affirmation of this nature in reality.
About the language
- Language is a tool of thinking... To handle language somehow means to think somehow: imprecisely, approximately, incorrectly.
- Language is living flesh, which has been created over millions of generations.
About efforts
- There is effort necessary condition moral improvement.
- A good deed is done with effort, but when the effort is repeated several times, the same deed becomes a habit.
About creativity
- Where labor turns into creativity, the fear of death naturally, even physiologically, disappears.
- Man has boundless sources of creativity, otherwise he would not have become a man. They need to be released and opened. And to do this without wringing hands with a plea for justice, but by placing a person in suitable social and material conditions.
This book contains interesting and vital statements from the greatest and most outstanding people on our planet. They contain enormous meaning, proven by experience. Every phrase spoken by these people tries to direct each of us to the true path and encourages us to think through every step. However, mistakes cannot be avoided. Also written in this book are short biographies each of these great people.
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The given introductory fragment of the book Quotes and sayings of great people (Collective of authors) provided by our book partner - the company liters.
Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910)
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - the greatest Russian writer, writer, one of the world's greatest writers, thinker, educator, publicist, corresponding member Imperial Academy Sci. Thanks to him, not only works appeared that are included in the treasury of world literature, but also an entire religious and moral movement - Tolstoyism.
Tolstoy was born on the Yasnaya Polyana estate, located in the Tula province, on September 9 (August 28, O.S.), 1828. Being the fourth child in the family of Count N. I. Tolstoy and Princess M. N. Volkonskaya, Lev was left an orphan early and was raised by a distant relative T. A. Ergolskaya. His childhood years remained in the memory of Lev Nikolaevich as happy time. Together with his family, 13-year-old Tolstoy moved to Kazan, where his relative and new guardian P.I. Yushkova lived. After receiving home education, Tolstoy became a student at the Faculty of Philosophy (Department of Oriental Languages) at Kazan University. Studying within the walls of this institution lasted less than two years, after which Tolstoy returned to Yasnaya Polyana.
In the fall of 1847, Leo Tolstoy moved first to Moscow, and later to St. Petersburg to take university candidate exams. These years of his life were special, priorities and hobbies replaced each other like in a kaleidoscope. Intense study gave way to carousing, gambling at cards, and a passionate interest in music. Tolstoy either wanted to become an official, or saw himself as a cadet in a horse guards regiment. At this time, he incurred a lot of debts, which he managed to pay off only after many years. Nevertheless, this period helped Tolstoy better understand himself and see his shortcomings. At this time, for the first time he had a serious intention to engage in literature, he began to try himself in artistic creativity.
Four years after leaving the university, Leo Tolstoy succumbed to the persuasion of his older brother Nikolai, an officer, to leave for the Caucasus. The decision did not come immediately, but a large loss in cards contributed to its adoption. In the fall of 1851, Tolstoy found himself in the Caucasus, where for almost three years he lived on the banks of the Terek in Cossack village. Subsequently, he was accepted into military service and participated in hostilities. During this period, the first published work appeared: the Sovremennik magazine published the story “Childhood” in 1852. She was part of the plan autobiographical novel, for which the stories “Adolescence” (1852-1854) and composed in 1855-1857 were subsequently written. "Youth"; Tolstoy never wrote the “Youth” part.
Having received an appointment in Bucharest, in the Danube Army, in 1854, Tolstoy, at his personal request, was transferred to the Crimean Army, fought as a battery commander in besieged Sevastopol, receiving medals and the Order of St. for valor. Anna. The war did not prevent him from continuing his studies in the literary field: it was here that he was written throughout 1855-1856. published in Sovremennik " Sevastopol stories”, which had enormous success and secured Tolstoy’s reputation as a prominent representative of the new generation of writers.
As the great hope of Russian literature, as Nekrasov put it, he was greeted in the Sovremennik circle when he arrived in St. Petersburg in the fall of 1855. Despite the warm welcome, active participation in readings, discussions, and dinners, Tolstoy did not feel like he belonged in the literary environment. In the fall of 1856, he retired and after a short stay in Yasnaya Polyana, he went abroad in 1857, but in the fall of that year he returned to Moscow, and then to his estate. Disappointment in the literary community social life, dissatisfaction creative achievements led to the fact that at the end of the 50s. Tolstoy decides to leave writing and gives priority to activities in the field of education.
Returning to Yasnaya Polyana in 1859, he opened a school for peasant children. This activity aroused such enthusiasm in him that he even made a special trip abroad to study advanced pedagogical systems. In 1862, the count began publishing the Yasnaya Polyana magazine with pedagogical content with supplements in the form of children's books for reading. Educational activities was suspended due to important event in his biography - his marriage in 1862 to S. A. Bers. After the wedding, Lev Nikolaevich transported his young wife from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana, where he was completely absorbed family life and household chores. Only in the early 70s. he will briefly return to educational work, write “The ABC” and “The New ABC.”
In the fall of 1863, he conceived the idea of a novel, which in 1865 would be published in the Russian Bulletin as “War and Peace” (the first part). The work caused a huge resonance; the skill with which Tolstoy painted a large-scale epic canvas, combining it with amazing accuracy, did not escape the public. psychological analysis, entered privacy heroes into outline historical events. Lev Nikolaevich wrote the epic novel until 1869, and during 1873-1877. worked on another novel that was included in the golden fund of world literature - “Anna Karenina”.
Both of these works glorified Tolstoy as greatest artist words, but the author himself in the 80s. loses interest in literary work. A very serious change occurs in his soul and in his worldview, and during this period the thought of suicide comes to him more than once. The doubts and questions that tormented him led to the need to begin with the study of theology, and works of a philosophical and religious nature began to appear from his pen: in 1879-1880 - “Confession”, “Study of Dogmatic Theology”; in 1880-1881 - “Connection and translation of the Gospels”, in 1882-1884. - “What is my faith?” In parallel with theology, Tolstoy studied philosophy and analyzed the achievements of the exact sciences.
Outwardly, the change in his consciousness manifested itself in simplification, i.e. in refusing the opportunities of a prosperous life. The Count dresses in common clothes, refuses food of animal origin, the rights to his works and his fortune in favor of the rest of the family, and works a lot physically. His worldview is characterized by a sharp rejection of the social elite, the idea of statehood, serfdom and bureaucracy. They are combined with the famous slogan of non-resistance to evil by violence, the ideas of forgiveness and universal love.
The turning point was also reflected in literary creativity Tolstoy, which takes on the character of denouncing the existing state of affairs with a call on people to act according to the dictates of reason and conscience. His stories “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, “The Devil”, dramas “The Power of Darkness” and “Fruits of Enlightenment”, and the treatise “What is Art?” belong to this time. Eloquent evidence of a critical attitude towards the clergy, official church and the novel “Resurrection”, published in 1899, became her teaching. Complete divergence from position Orthodox Church turned out to be an official excommunication for Tolstoy; this happened in February 1901, and the decision of the Synod led to a loud public outcry.
On turn of the 19th century and 20th centuries V works of art Tolstoy’s theme is dominated by the theme of radical life changes, departure from the previous way of life (“Father Sergius”, “Hadji Murat”, “The Living Corpse”, “After the Ball”, etc.). Lev Nikolaevich himself also came to the decision to change lifestyle, to live the way he wanted, in accordance with current views. Being the most authoritative writer, the head of national literature, he breaks with his environment, worsens relations with his family and loved ones, experiencing a deep personal drama.
At the age of 82, secretly from his household, on an autumn night in 1910, Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana; his companion was his personal physician Makovitsky. On the way, the writer was overtaken by illness, as a result of which they were forced to get off the train at Astapovo station. Here he was sheltered by the station chief, and the last week of the life of a world-famous writer, known among other things as a preacher of a new teaching, passed in his house. religious thinker. The whole country monitored his health, and when he died on November 10 (October 28, O.S.), 1910, his funeral turned into an event of an all-Russian scale.
The influence of Tolstoy, his ideological platform and artistic style on the development of the realistic trend in world literature is difficult to overestimate. In particular, its influence can be traced in the works of E. Hemingway, F. Mauriac, Rolland, B. Shaw, T. Mann, J. Galsworthy and other outstanding literary figures.
Quotes:
Most of men demand from their wives virtues that they themselves are not worth.
War is murder. And no matter how many people come together to commit murder, and no matter what they call themselves, murder is still the worst sin in the world.
A teacher needs to know life deeply in order to prepare for it.
Time is an endless movement, without a single moment of rest - and it cannot be conceived otherwise.
All people of the world have the same rights to enjoy the natural benefits of the world and the same rights to respect.
In art, everything is a little bit.
You can always recognize yourself in every person and his actions.
Power over oneself is the most supreme authority, enslavement to one’s passions is the most terrible slavery.
There is a side to a dream that is better than reality; in reality there is a side better than dreams. Complete happiness would be a combination of both.
In any case, a little, but good, is better than a lot, but bad. It's the same in books.
Kindness is for the soul what health is for the body: it is invisible when you own it, and it gives success in every endeavor.
If a person did not desire, then there would be no person. The cause of all activity is desire.
If life does not seem to you to be a great joy, it is only because your mind is misdirected.
If you regret not saying it once, you will regret it a hundred times. that he did not remain silent.
If how many heads are there are so many minds, then how many hearts are there are so many kinds of love.
You cannot scare off children with harshness; they only cannot stand lies.
In order to learn to tell the truth to people, you need to learn to tell it to yourself.
A good deed is done with effort, but when the effort is repeated several times, the same deed becomes a habit.
Shame in front of people is a good feeling, but the best feeling is shame in front of yourself.
The essence of any faith is that it gives life a meaning that is not destroyed by death.
Happy is he who is happy at home.
Happiness is pleasure without remorse.
Where labor turns into creativity, the fear of death naturally, even physiologically, disappears.
A drunkard never moves forward either mentally or morally.
Work is only joyful when it is undoubtedly needed.
The difference between material and mental poisons is that most material poisons taste disgusting, while mental poisons, in the form of... bad books, unfortunately, are often attractive.
Reasonable and moral always coincide.
Try to fulfill your duty, and you will immediately know what you are worth.
The degree of truthfulness of a person is an indicator of the degree of his moral perfection.
What to do? Throw away all those improvements in life, all the power that humanity has acquired? Forget what it has learned? Impossible. No matter how harmfully these mental acquisitions are used, they are still acquisitions, and people cannot forget them.
What could be more precious than to enter into daily communication with the wisest people in the world.
What could be more terrible than all these newly invented means of extermination - cannons, cannonballs, bombs, smokeless powder rockets, torpedoes and other instruments of death?
The more a person gives to people and demands less for himself, the better he is; The less he gives to others and the more he demands for himself, the worse he is.
The more a person is satisfied with himself, the less there is in him with which to be satisfied.
How better person, the less he fears death.
To become happy, you need to constantly strive for this happiness and understand it. It depends not on the circumstances, but on you.
I always tried not to get irritated and give in in a quarrel, which was how I achieved peace, and then in a calm state the matter was settled by itself. You almost always regret that the quarrel was not stopped at the beginning.
A person who has stopped drinking and smoking acquires that mental clarity and calmness of gaze that illuminates for him all the phenomena of life from a new, correct perspective.
A person is like a fraction, the numerator is what he is, and the denominator is what he thinks about himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction.
A man who has come to know his life is like a slave man who suddenly finds out that he is a king.
I know only two real misfortunes in life: remorse and illness.
The fear of death is inversely proportional to a good life.
One can and should be ashamed not of any work, even the most unclean one, but of only one thing: idle life.
If only people believed that strength does not lie in force, but in truth, and would boldly express it.
If only people knew that the goal of humanity is not material progress, that this progress is inevitable growth, and there is one goal - the good of all people...
The right way is this: learn what your predecessors did and move on.
A vocation can only be recognized and proven by the sacrifice that a scientist or artist makes to his peace and well-being in order to devote himself to his vocation.
Progress consists in the increasing predominance of reason over the animal law of struggle.
Only then is it easy to live with a person when you do not consider yourself higher or better than him, or him higher and better than yourself.
He who does nothing always has many helpers.
Good actor maybe, as it seems to me, it’s great to play the stupidest things and thereby increase their harmful influence.
The purpose of dinner is nutrition and the purpose of marriage is family.
Church. This whole word is the name of deception, through which some people want to rule over others.
Dejection and bad spirits are not only painful for others, but also contagious.
At the very evil man his face lights up when he is told that he is loved. Therefore, this is happiness...
Effort is a necessary condition for moral improvement.
Often people are proud of the purity of their conscience only because they have a short memory.
Modesty is often mistaken for weakness and indecisiveness, but when experience proves to people that they are mistaken, then modesty gives new charm, strength and respect to character.
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.
A person will be the happier the more clearly he understands that his calling is not to accept services from other people, but to serve others and put his life at the disposal of many people. A person who does this will be worthy of his possessions and will never fail.
A cowardly friend is worse than an enemy, because you fear an enemy, but rely on a friend.
Vanity, concern for human glory is the last dress to be taken off. It is difficult to remove it, and it is terribly burdensome, because most of all it interferes with the freedom of the soul.
The tenderness and delight that we experience from contemplating nature is a memory of the time when we were animals, trees, flowers, earth. More precisely: this is the consciousness of unity with everything, hidden from us by time.
A person must be happy. If he is unhappy, then he is to blame, and is obliged to work on himself until he eliminates this inconvenience or misunderstanding.
Labor, labor. How happy I feel when I work.
Good is the eternal, highest goal of our life. No matter how we understand good, our life is nothing more than a desire for good.
If people bother you, then you have no reason to live. Leaving people is suicide.
If you do something, do it well. If you cannot or do not want to do well, it is better not to do it at all.
If the purpose of marriage is a family, then anyone who wants to have many wives and husbands may get a lot of pleasure, but in no case will have a family
There are two desires, the fulfillment of which can constitute a person’s true happiness - to be useful and to have a clear conscience.
One of the first and universally recognized conditions of happiness is a life in which the connection between man and nature is not broken, that is, life under open air, in the light of the sun, in fresh air; communication with the earth, plants, animals.
One of the most amazing misconceptions is the misconception that human happiness lies in doing nothing.
The mistakes and oversights of a clear-eyed person can be more useful than the half-truths of people who prefer to remain in uncertainty.
The obscurity of the word is an invariable sign of the obscurity of thought.
No selfish excitement can resist the soothing, enchanting influence of beautiful and calm nature.
Nothing encourages idleness more than empty talk.
Every abstinence requires effort, but of all such efforts, the most difficult is the effort of tongue abstinence. It is also the most necessary.
True social progress lies in greater and greater unity of people.
One of the most common temptations that leads to the greatest disasters is the temptation with the words: “Everyone does it.”
Pessimism...has always seemed to me not only sophistry, but stupidity, and, in addition, stupidity of bad taste... I always want to say to a pessimist: “If the world is not for you, don’t flaunt your displeasure, leave it and don’t bother others.”
It is bad if a person does not have something for which he is ready to die.
...The consequences of war will always be general disaster and general corruption...
There is no greater help for the selfish, peaceful life like doing art for art's sake. A despot, a villain must certainly love art... When people admire Shakespeare, Beethoven, they admire their thoughts, dreams evoked by Shakespeare, Beethoven. How lovers love not an object, but what it evokes in them. In such admiration there is no real reality of art, but there is complete infinity.
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?
The need for education lies within every person; people love and seek education, just as they love and seek air to breathe.
There is only one way to end evil - to do good to evil people.
...The main thing is not to forget for a minute because of marital love, not to lose love and respect as a person to another.
The main obstacle to knowing the truth is not a lie, but the semblance of the truth.
Proud man definitely covered with an ice crust. There is no way for any other feeling to pass through this crust.
Nine-tenths of the total number of crimes that stain humanity are committed under the influence of wine.
We must always marry in the same way as we die, that is, only when it is impossible otherwise.
You can only hate life due to apathy and laziness.
Time passes, but the spoken word remains.
All thoughts that have huge consequences are always simple.
...We love people for the good that we have done to them, and we do not love for the evil that we have done to them.
You must definitely shake yourself up physically in order to be mentally healthy.
We must take advantage of every opportunity to bring joy to people, but people must also try to ensure that they are pleased not by trifles, but by important things.
People learn how to speak, but the main science is how and when to remain silent.
The world moves forward because of those who suffer.
A lot is needed for art, but the main thing is fire!
Wisdom in all life's affairs, it seems to me, consists not in knowing what to do, but in knowing what to do first and what after.
Wisdom is not knowing a lot. There is no way we can know everything. Wisdom does not lie in knowing as much as possible, but in knowing which knowledge is most necessary, which is less necessary, and which is even less necessary.
Music is a shorthand for feelings.
...You can look at the same thing tragically and make it a torment, and you can look at it simply and even fun.
Our good qualities harm us more in life than bad ones.
Don't be afraid of ignorance, be afraid of false knowledge. All the evil in the world comes from him.
Do not believe the words of either your own or those of others, believe only the deeds of both your own and those of others.
Dissatisfaction with oneself is a necessary condition for a rational life. Only this dissatisfaction motivates us to work on ourselves.
Never listen to those who speak bad about others and good about you.
It is not harmful or harmful not to know. No one can know everything, and it is shameful and harmful to pretend that you know what you do not know.
People who... recognize war not only as inevitable, but also useful and therefore desirable - these people are terrible, terrible in their moral perversity.
People differ in that some people think first, then speak and do, while others speak and do first, and then think.
Isn’t it the usual course of progress that inventions and material improvements are made that destroy the moral order of life? When this disorder becomes very severe, they rise moral issues…
All happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
...All slander receives only greater value from objecting to it.
Every person knows that he needs to do not what separates him from people, but what connects him with them.
What is important has always been and will be only what is needed for the good of not just one person, but of all people.
Knowledge humbles the great, astonishes the ordinary, and inflates the little man.
Both upbringing and education are inseparable. You cannot educate without passing on knowledge; all knowledge has an educational effect.
The ideal is guiding star. Without it there is no solid direction, and without direction there is no life.
Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for a certain time, a goal for the year, for the month, for the week, for the day, and for the hour, and for the minute, sacrificing the lower goals to the higher ones.
Life should and can be unceasing joy.
Books of sayings... not only do not suppress independent activity mind, but, on the contrary, cause it.
Short thoughts are good because they force the serious reader to think for himself.
Eloquence, like pearls, sparkles with content. True wisdom is terse.
Beauty, joy, only as joy, regardless of goodness, is disgusting.
Everyone wants to change humanity, but no one thinks about how to change themselves.
What a necessary seasoning for everything - kindness. The most best qualities without kindness they are worth nothing, and the most worst vices they say goodbye to her easily.
No matter what you say, native language will always remain family. When you want to speak to your heart’s content, not a single French word comes to mind, but if you want to shine, then it’s a different matter.
No matter how unpleasant anger is for others, it is more painful for the one who experiences it. What begins in anger ends in shame.
As soon as an ideal higher than the previous one is set before humanity, all previous ideals fade like stars before the sun, and man cannot help but recognize the highest ideal, just as he cannot help but see the sun.
The beauty of bodily forms always coincides with the concept of healthy strength. about the activity of vital energy.
Shortest expression The meaning of life can be this: the world is moving and improving. The main task is to contribute to this movement, submit to it and cooperate with it.
Criticism is only fruitful when, condemning, it points out what that which is bad should be.
He who has learned to think finds it difficult to believe.
Love cannot be harmful, as long as it is love, and not the wolf of selfishness in the sheep's clothing of love...
Every creature has organs that indicate its place in the world. For humans, this organ is the mind.
If your mind does not show you your place in the world and your purpose, then know that it is not the bad structure of the world that is to blame for this, not your mind, but the false direction that you gave it.
Love destroys death and turns it into an empty ghost; it turns life from nonsense into something meaningful and makes happiness out of misfortune.
Life, whatever it is, is a good, beyond which there is no one.
The grain is invisible in the ground, but only grows from it huge tree. Thoughts are just as imperceptible, but only from thoughts do they grow greatest events human life.
Anger, like love, is not a chemical substance, but an organic one, like yeast - leaven. A tiny portion leavens everything.
...The evil of war and the good of peace are known to people to such an extent that since we have known people, the most best wishes was the greeting “peace be upon you.”
Knowledge without moral basis- does not mean anything.
Knowledge is a tool, not a goal.
Art is the highest manifestation of power in man.
True, expressed in words, is a powerful force in people's lives.
True love in itself feels so much holiness, innocence, strength, enterprise and independence that for it there is no crime, no obstacles, or the whole prosaic side of life.
The true strength of a person is not in impulses, but in unshakable calm.
One must marry not for love, but certainly with calculation, only understanding these words exactly the opposite of how they are usually understood, that is, marry not for sensual love and for calculation of where and how to live, but according to the calculation of how likely it is that future wife will help and not hinder me from living a human life.
A woman who tries to look like a man is just as ugly as an effeminate man.
Only those who do good live.
Both what we call happiness and what we call unhappiness are equally useful to us if we look at both as a test.
It is not the quantity of knowledge that is important, but its quality. You can know a lot without knowing what you really need.
Great objects of art are great only because they are accessible and understandable to everyone.
The greatest truths are the simplest.
Faith is an understanding of the meaning of life and recognition of the responsibilities arising from this understanding.
…Any discussion about love destroys love.
The need for happiness is embedded in a person; therefore, it is legal.
It was smooth on paper, but they forgot about the ravines and walked along them!
Aphorisms - almost best form for the presentation of philosophical judgments.
Disaster is a touchstone for human life.
Immortality, of course, is incomplete, and is undoubtedly realized in the offspring.
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 by category belles lettres. During his lifetime he was recognized as the patriarch of Russian literature, whose work marked new stage in the development of world realism, becoming a bridge between the traditions of classical novel XIX century and 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 a person shows love, the more 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.
From what gambling is 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.
How more beautiful woman, 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.
A triple recipe against grief and resentment: 1) Think about how unimportant it will be in 10, 20 years, how unimportant now is what tormented 10, 20 years ago; 2) Remember what you yourself did, things that are no better than those that upset you. 3) Think about the hundred times worse thing that could happen. You can also add to this to think about the situation, the soul of the person upsetting you, to understand that he cannot act differently.
