History is the product of vast, amorphous and indecipherable social movements. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
All the true heroes of history will be forgotten and all the villains will be remembered as heroes. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
If every man could act as he chose, the whole of history would be a tissue of disconnected accidents. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“War is the most painful act of subjection to the laws of God that can be required of the human will.” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“In the legal respect, after the execution of the supposed incendiaries, the other half of Moscow burned down.” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“The more we try to explain sensibily these phenomena of history, the more senseless and incomphrensible they become for us.” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Fatalism in history is inevitable for the explanation of senseless phenomena (that is, those whose sense we do not understand).” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
Man's mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but the desire to find the causes is implanted in man's… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Man lives consciously for himself but unconsciously he serves as an instrument for the accomplishment of historical and social ends.” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
The epitaph that I would write for history would say: I conceal nothing. It is not enough not to lie. One should… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“History – the amorphous, unconscious life within the swarm of humanity – exploits every minute in the lives of kings as an… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“In historical events great men - so-called - are but labels serving to give a name to the event, and like labels… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“There are two sides to the life of every man: there is his individual existence which is free in proportion as his… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Only by assuming an infinitesimally small unit for observation - a differential of history (that is, the common tendencies of men) -… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Chance created the situation; genius utilized it,” says history. But what is chance? What is genius? The words chance and genius do… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Only by taking infinitesimally small units for observation (the differential of history, that is, the individual tendencies of men) and attaining to… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person.… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
Each man lives for himself, uses his freedom to achieve his personal goals, and feels with his whole being that right now… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Just as in a clock, the result of the complicated motion of innumerable wheels and pulleys is merely a slow and regular… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“In a clock the complex action of countless different wheels works its way out in the even, leisurely movement of hands measuring… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Consciously a man lives on his own account in freedom of willbut he serves as an unconscious instrument in bringing about the… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“The highest wisdom is founded not on reason only, not on those worldly sciences, of physics, history, chemistry, etc., into which knowledge… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] In those days also people loved, envied, sought truth and virtue, and where carried… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] For a historian considering the achievement of a certain aim, there are heroes; for… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“MAN’S MIND cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but the desire to find those causes is implanted in man’s… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“Every monarch in the world, except the Emperor of China, wears a military uniform, and bestows the greatest rewards on the man… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
History, that is to say, the unconscious, universal life of humanity, in the aggregate, every moment profits by the life of kings… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
The subject of history is the life of peoples and of humanity. To catch and pin down in words--that is, to describe… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
These joys were so trifling as to be as imperceptible as grains of gold among the sand, and in moments of depression she saw… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“If you only knew what those society women are, and women in general! My father is right. Selfish, vain, stupid, trivial in everything—that's what… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds,… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
Once we're thrown off our habitual paths, we think all is lost, but it's only here that the new and the good begins. — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror that seized on his heart. She was standing talking to a lady at… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
“He was not to blame for being born with an irrepressible charachter and a mind some how constrained.” — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
I ask one thing only: I ask for the right to hope, to suffer as I do. But if even that cannot be, command… — Leo Tolstoy Copy Share Image
![“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] In those days also people loved, envied, sought truth and virtue, and where carried away by passions; and there was the same complex mental and moral life among the upper classes, where were in some instances even more refined than now. If we have come to…” quote by Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5d6/leo-tolstoy-55_history_from-some-words-about-war-and-peace-in-t_2034144.jpg)
![“[from Some words about 'War and Peace' ] For a historian considering the achievement of a certain aim, there are heroes; for the artist treating of a man's relation to all sides of life there cannot and should not be heroes, but there should be men. [...] The historian has to deal with the results…” quote by Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/64c/leo-tolstoy-55_art_from-some-words-about-war-and-peace-for_2609297.jpg)
