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Religion Quotes by Leo Tolstoy

73 Religion quotes by Leo Tolstoy

All Religion quotes Leo Tolstoy’s page

Rivers are places that renew our spirit, connect us with our past, and link us to the rhythm of nature. Tolstoy’s quotes call out vague spiritual ideas that hide meaning and note that true ecstasy removes ego. They also remind us that many faiths share one underlying spirit.

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India, which is the nursery of the great faiths of the world

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A holy spirit lives within you.

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There are many faiths, but the spirit is one.

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“Salvation does not lie in the rituals and profession of faith, but in a lucid understanding of the meaning of one’s life.”

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Well, pray if you like, only you'd do better to use your judgment.

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Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances.

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One of the most obtuse superstitions is the superstition of the scientists who say that man can exist without faith.

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Grow spiritually and help others to do so. It is the meaning of life.

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In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.

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There are many faiths, but the spirit is one, in me, in you, and in every man.

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“True religion is that relationship, in accordance with reason and knowledge which man establishes with the infinite world around him, and which…

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Genuine religion is not about speculating about God or the soul or about what happened in the past or will happen in…

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“I ... having filled my life with the spiritual blessings Christianity gave me, brimful of these blessings and living by them, I,…

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“He is so used to living a purely spiritual life that he cannot reconcile himself to realities, and, after all, Varenka is…

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“Those who don’t believe in the spiritual foundations of their faith, who only pay lip service to the outer shell of their…

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The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship…

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Rivers are places that renew our spirit, connect us with our past, and link us directly with the flow and rhythm of…

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“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must…

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“Nikolushka and his upbringing, Andre, and religion were Princess Marya's comforts and joys; but, besides that, since every human being needs his…

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Religions are the exponents of the highest comprehension of life... within a given age in a given society... a basis for evaluating…

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“Will the freshness, lightheartedness, the need for love, and strength of faith which you have in childhood ever return? What better time…

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“To claim that the supernatural and irrational form the basic characteristics of religion is much the same as noticing only the rotten…

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“Spiritual activity, education, civilization, culture, the idea are all vague, indefinite concepts, under the banner of which it is quite convenient to…

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Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their…

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In vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the…

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A free thinker used to be a man who had been educated on ideas of religion, law, morality, and had arrived at…

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“Whatever answers faith gives, regardless of which faith, or to whom the answers are given, such answers always give an infinite meaning…

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“Thus the truth—that his life should be directed by the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself as love, and…

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“You are all misleading one another, and are yourselves deceived. The sun does not go round the earth, but the earth goes…

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

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The essence of any religion lies solely in the answer to the question: why do I exist, and what is my relationship…

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“On earth, here on this earth, there is no truth, all is false and evil; but in the universe, in the whole…

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“As long as he followed the fixed definition of obscure words such as spirit, will, freedom, essence, purposely letting himself go into…

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

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Only greatly insolent people establish a religious law which is to be taken for granted by others, which should be accepted by…

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One may say with one's lips: 'I believe that God is one, and also three' - but no one can believe it,…

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If religion is the establishing of a relationship between man and the universe, then morality is the explanation of those activities that…

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“Nothing but ambition, nothing but the desire to get on, that's all there is in his soul," she thought; "as for these…

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“A man is never such an egotist as at moments of spiritual ecstasy. At such times it seems to him that there…

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I was now prepared to accept any faith so long as it did not demand a direct denial of reason, which would…

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More by Leo Tolstoy

These joys were so trifling as to be as imperceptible as grains of gold among the sand, and in moments of depression she saw…

The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.

“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…

Energy rests upon love; and come as it will, there's no forcing it.

“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…

To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds,…

To speak of it would be giving importance to that which has none.

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.

“He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror that seized on his heart. She was standing talking to a lady at…

Rest, nature, books, music...such is my idea of happiness.

“He was not to blame for being born with an irrepressible charachter and a mind some how constrained.”

I ask one thing only: I ask for the right to hope, to suffer as I do. But if even that cannot be, command…

The idea shared by many that life is a vale of tears is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority,…

To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind…

True life is lived when tiny changes occur.