#tolstoy

He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he had plucked, in which it was difficult for him to trace the beauty that had made him pick and so destroy it ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#despair #leo-tolstoy #love #sadness #beauty

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not. ↗

— A. N. Wilson

#feels #oneself #shadow #tolstoy #whether

I'm not going to get into the ring with Tolstoy. ↗

— Ernest Hemingway

#going #i #into #ring #tolstoy

I used to have a great love for Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, the big boys of the last century. ↗

— Norman MacCaig

#century #great #great love #i #last

Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts,, actions! They are all but grains of sand ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#leo-tolstoy #life #life-philosophy #life

And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#dishonesty #intellect #pride #stupidity #tolstoy

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#capitalism #dishonest #hierarchy #honest #labor

Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoy's Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day's work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city's reservoir, he turns to the cupboards, only to find the vodka bottle empty. ↗

— P.G. Wodehouse

#humor #moroseness #russia #satire #sorrow

I felt a wish never to leave that room - a wish that dawn might never come, that my present frame of mind might never change. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#leo-tolstoy #literature #russia #change

Tolstoy said, 'The antagonism between life and conscience may be removed either by a change of life or by a change of conscience.' Many of us have elected to adjust our consciences rather than our lives. Our powers of rationalization are unlimited. They allow us to live in luxury and indifference while others, whom we could help if we chose to, starve and go to hell. ↗

— Randy Alcorn

#change #compassion #conscience #conviction #guilt