Quotes

Leo Tolstoy

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian novelist regarded as one of the greatest of all time. He is best known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Part 1 : Anna Karenina

''All happy families are alike; each unhappy families is unhappy in its own way.''

( the first sentence of the novel Anna Karenina)

"If you look for perfection, you'll never be content."

"Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed. "

"Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand."

"Anything is better than lies and deceit!"

"I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be.''

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

"Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know."

"They've got no idea what happiness is, they don't know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us--there is no life."

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

"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."

"If you love me as you say you do,' she whispered, 'make it so that I am at peace."

''Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget..."

''In infinite time, in infinite matter, in infinite space, is formed a bubble organism, and that bubble lasts a while and bursts, and that bubble is Me.''

Part 2 : War and Peace

''Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy."

''The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness..."

''Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid."

"In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning. "

Everyone should read at least Anna Arcadievna Karenina once in their lives.