What is important in knowledge is not quantity, but quality. It is important to know what knowledge is significant, what is less so, and what is trivial.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Leo Tolstoy
State violence
State violence cannot be destroyed by decree, only by truth and love. Maybe state violence was necessary for previous generations; Maybe it is even necessary now, but people should conceive of a kind of future government in which violence will not be necessary.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Assertion
Your spirit must constantly assert itself because your body is constantly exerting itself. As soon as you stop working at your spirit, then your body will have complete power over you.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Real goodness
Real goodness is not something that can be acquired in an instant, but only through constant effort, because real goodness lies in constantly striving for perfection.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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It’s not important
It is difficult to imagine what wonderful changes would occur to human lives if people would stop poisoning themselves with brandy, wine, tobacco and drugs. […] Some people say, “It is not important if you drink or smoke.” If it is of no importance, then why not just stop, if you know that you harm yourself and, with your example, others?
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Completely just
You cannot be completely just. One time you do too little, the other time you do too much. There is only one way not to sin against justice; Always to change things, to improve things, to make them better.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Moderation
People can live without need and without jealousy only when they lead a life of moderation.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Harmony and understanding
People are wise beings; they possess the ability to live according to the dictates of their intellect, and sooner or later, they will evolve from a state of violence to a state of complete harmony and understanding. And every act of violence makes this time more distant from today.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Truth
Many statements which are accepted as truth because they have been passed down to us by tradition look like truth only because we have never tested them, never thought about them in a more precise way.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Influence
The opinion of a revered writer or thinker can have a deep influence on society; it can also be a big obstacle to understanding real truth.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Whose thoughts
Some people live and act according to their own thoughts, and some according to the thoughts of others; this is a crucial distinction between people.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Influencing others
The possibility of influencing others causes a person with high morals to be more strict about his words and actions which could influence other people.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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False ideas
False ideas which gain currency can easily be recognized by the loud fanfare with which they are accompanied. Real truth does not need any other embellishments.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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A bad example
Nothing is more harmful than a bad example set by others. They bring into our life notions which never would have occurred to us without an example.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Other people’s thoughts
For the most part, false and harmful opinions are distributed and supported by influence. We are too likely to accept the views and thoughts of other people without trying to investigate them deeper and further ourselves. Unimportant people are those who accept other people’s thoughts without developing them themselves.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Mistakes
Not to accept your mistakes is to increase them.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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The causes of evil
Look for the causes of the evil from which you suffer in yourself. Sometimes this evil is the direct consequence of your activity; Sometimes it happens after a lengthy period of transformation of an evil which you committed long ago. But the source is always in you, and salvation from it lies in changes in your actions, your way of life.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Highest possible goals
In the long run, people achieve only that which they have set as goals for themselves; Therefore, set the highest possible goals for yourself.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Change
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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Already knowing
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.
~ Leo Tolstoy
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