Marriage Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones.

— Leo Tolstoy

A wife's a worry, a non-wife's even worse.

— Leo Tolstoy

“Another's wife is a white swan, and ours is bitter wormwood.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“In order to undertake anything in family life, it is necessary that there be either complete discord between the spouses or loving…

— Leo Tolstoy

The goal of our life should not be to find joy in marriage, but to bring more love and truth into the…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Our life has been joined, not by man, but by God. That union can only be severed by a crime, and a…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Stepan Arkadyevitch, like all unfaithful husbands indeed, was very solicitous for his wife's comfort”

— Leo Tolstoy

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.

— Leo Tolstoy

“I killed the wife when I first tasted sensual joys without love, and then it was that I killed my wife.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“I only know this, that she thanks God for all her tribulations, and, above all, because her husband is dead.”

— Leo Tolstoy

“Before any definite step can be taken in a household, there must be either complete division or loving accord between husband and…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Every man experiences what you call love for every pretty woman and least of all for his wife. That is what the…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Moreover, during his wife's confinement, something had happened that seemed extraordinary to him. He, an unbeliever, had fallen into praying, and at…

— Leo Tolstoy

“As a house can be only be built satisfactorily and durably when there is a foundation, and a picture can be painted…

— Leo Tolstoy

The role of the disappointed lover of a maiden or of any single woman might be ridiculous; but the role of a…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Here it is. Let's say you're married, you love your wife, but you're attracted by another woman.' 'Excuse me, but I absolutely…

— Leo Tolstoy

“The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild…

— Leo Tolstoy

“The liberal party said that marriage is an institution quite out of date, and that it needs reconstruction; and family life certainly…

— Leo Tolstoy

Many families remain for years in the same place, though both husband and wife are sick of it, simply because there is…

— Leo Tolstoy

Here's my advice to you: don't marry until you can tell yourself that you've done all you could, and until you've stopped…

— Leo Tolstoy

“He had never thought the question over clearly, but vaguely imagined that his wife had long suspected him of being unfaithful to…

— Leo Tolstoy

“But when, as is most often the case, the husband and wife accept the external obligation to live together all their lives…

— Leo Tolstoy

In order to carry through any undertaking in family life, there must necessarily be either complete division between the husband and wife,…

— 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

“Then as now much time was spent arguing about the rights of women, husband-and-wife relationships and freedom and rights within marriage, but…

— Leo Tolstoy

Real art, like the wife of an affectionate husband, needs no ornaments. But counterfeit art, like a prostitute, must always be decked…

— Leo Tolstoy

The goal of our life should not be to find joy in marriage, but to bring more love and truth into the…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Next morning, when Semyon woke up, the children were still asleep and his wife had gone over to the neighbour's to borrow…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Never, never marry, my dear fellow! That's my advice: never marry till you can say to yourself that you have done all…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with himself. He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading himself that he…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Alexei Alexandrovich stood face to face with life, confronting the possibility of his wife loving someone else besides him, and it was…

— Leo Tolstoy

“We talked of a future life, of art, service, marriage, and education; nor did the idea ever occur to us that very…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Stepan Arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with himself. He was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading himself that he…

— Leo Tolstoy

“In spite of Stepan Arkadyevitch's efforts to be an attentive father and husband, he never could keep in his mind that he…

— Leo Tolstoy

“a huge pear in his hand for his wife, he had not found his wife in the drawing-room, to his surprise had…

— Leo Tolstoy

... in marriage the great thing was love, and that with love one would always be happy, for happiness rests only on oneself.

— Leo Tolstoy

He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she…

— Leo Tolstoy

“For love? What antediluvian notions you have! Can one talk of love in these days?" said the ambassador's wife. "What's to be…

— Leo Tolstoy

“Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horrors of disease, and agonies of the soul, but all the time his most tormenting tragedy has…

— Leo Tolstoy