War Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

A battle is won by him who is firmly resolved to win it.

— Leo Tolstoy

“All the horrors of the reign of terror were based on concern for public tranquility.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“It was all so strange, so unlike what he had been looking forward to.”

— Leo Tolstoy

Where is there any book of the law so clear to each man as that written in his heart?

— Leo Tolstoy

It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

— Leo Tolstoy

If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.

— Leo Tolstoy

“What a terrible thing war is, what a terrible thing!”

— Leo Tolstoy

“War is the most painful act of subjection to the laws of God that can be required of the human will.”

— Leo Tolstoy

War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Ambition was the old dream of his youth and childhood, a dream which he did not confess even to himself, though it…

— Leo Tolstoy

“In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of…

— Leo Tolstoy

Violence produces only something resembling justice, but it distances people from the possibility of living justly, without violence.

— Leo Tolstoy

“It was necessary that millions of men in whose hands lay the real power -- the soldiers who fired, or transported provisions…

— Leo Tolstoy

Men are so accustomed to maintaining external order by violence that they cannot conceive of life being possible without violence.

— 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

War on the other hand is such a terrible thing, that no man, especially a Christian man, has the right to assume…

— Leo Tolstoy

“But in the course of the war they waged against the taiga, scorching it with fire, and attacking it with iron, Makar’s…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Millions of men, renouncing their human feelings and reason, had to go from west to east to slay their fellows, just as…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Only during a period of war does it become obvious how millions of people can be manipulated. People, millions of people, are…

— Leo Tolstoy

“knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a commander in chief, nor the place where…

— Leo Tolstoy

“A battle is won by the side that is absolutely determined to win. Why did we lose the battle of Austerlitz? Our…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Life meanwhile, the actual life of men with their real interests of health and sickness, labour and rest, with their interests of…

— Leo Tolstoy

“He was in a fairy kingdom where everything was possible. He looked up at the sky. And the sky was a fairy…

— Leo Tolstoy

Tell people that war is an evil, and they will laugh; for who does not know it? Tell them that patriotism is…

— Leo Tolstoy

“But though towards the end of the battle the men felt all the horror of their actions, though they would have been…

— Leo Tolstoy

At one time,' Golenishchev continued, either not observing or not willing to observe that both Anna and Vronsky wanted to speak, 'at…

— Leo Tolstoy

“It is often said that the invention of terrible weapons of destruction will put an end to war. That is an error.…

— Leo Tolstoy

“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] In those days also people loved, envied, sought truth and virtue, and where carried…

— Leo Tolstoy

“But all these hints at foreseeing what actually did happen on the French as well as on the Russian side are only…

— Leo Tolstoy

“at one time, a freethinker was a man who had been brought up in the conceptions of religion, law and morality, who…

— Leo Tolstoy

“But to us of a later generation...it is inconceivable that millions of Christian men should have killed and tortured each other, because…

— Leo Tolstoy

“...And there really are men who believe in this, who spend their time in promoting Leagues of Peace, in delivering addresses, and…

— Leo Tolstoy

“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] For a historian considering the achievement of a certain aim, there are heroes; for…

— Leo Tolstoy

“I cannot think of those years without horror, loathing and heartache. I killed men in war and challenged men to duels in…

— Leo Tolstoy

“And so there was no single cause for war, but it happened simply because it had to happen”

— Leo Tolstoy

“Well, why are you going to the war?” asked Pierre. “What for? I don’t know. I must. Besides that I am going…”…

— Leo Tolstoy

What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen.

— Leo Tolstoy

Good fiction doesn't come out of the basic conflict of good versus bad. Instead, it comes out of a conflict between good…

— Leo Tolstoy

“War is not a polite recreation, but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to realize this and not make a…

— Leo Tolstoy

You consider war to be inevitable? Very good. Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance-guards, for…

— Leo Tolstoy