Character Quote by William Ernest Henley

I cannot stand Tolstoy, and reading him was the most boring literary duty I ever had to perform, his philosophy and his sense of…

— Ayn Rand

When you started looking at the life of Tolstoy, there was so much passion and anger and drama surrounding him.

— Elif Batuman

What has appealed to me most in Tolstoy's life is that he practiced what he preached and reckoned no cost too great in his…

— Mahatma Gandhi

“The hero of my tale,” Tolstoy wrote when he was just twenty-seven, “whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I…

— Leo Tolstoy

Everyone writes in Tolstoy's shadow, whether one feels oneself to be Tolstoyan or not.

— A. N. Wilson

Everything Tolstoy wrote is precious, but I found this final statement of the truth about life as he had come to understand it particularly…

— Malcolm Muggeridge

“...Tolstoy's characters seem to come forward to meet you, very conscious of the impression they are making on one another and on the reader.”

— Stephen Spender

Tolstoy was the most gifted writer who ever lived. It's like he stuck a pen in his heart and it didn't even go through…

— Mel Brooks

“Tolstoy’s interest in history began early in his life. It seems to have arisen not from interest in the past as such, but from…

— Isaiah Berlin

“They certified that I was sane; but I know that I am mad." This confession gives us the key to what is most important…

— Lev Shestov

Tolstoy's so-called inconsistencies were a sign of his development and his passionate regard for truth.

— Mahatma Gandhi

“Tolstoy was perfectly right to protest that history is not made to happen by the combination of such obscure entities as the ‘power’ or…

— Isaiah Berlin