Leo Tolstoy Messages

The recognition of the sanctity of the life of every man is the first and only basis of all morality.

Be bad, but at least don't be a liar, a deceiver!

It is within my power either to serve God or not to serve Him. Serving Him, I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create.

There is no significant idea which cannot be explained to an intelligent twelve year old boy in fifteen minutes.

Just when the question of how to live had become clearer to him, a new insoluble problem presented itself - Death.

To sin is a human business, to justify sins is a devilish business.

I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.

Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life.

To abolish war it is necessary to abolish patriotism, and to abolish patriotism it is necessary first to understand that it is an evil. Tell people that patriotism is bad and most will reply, 'Yes, bad patriotism is bad, but mine is good patriotism.'

The struggle with evil by means of violence is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud, in order that there may be no rain.