Leo Tolstoy

Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.

I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

We seem but to linger in manhood to tell the dreams of our childhood, and they vanish out of memory ere we learn the language.

A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain.

Knowledge is power.

Follow your own passion – not your parents’, not your teachers’- yours.