Leo Tolstoy

Whatever our fate is or may be, we have made it and do not complain of it. – Vronksy (Anna Karenina)

Enough or not…it will have to do.

My principal sin is doubt. I doubt everything, and am in doubt most of the time.

It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.

Kings are the slaves of history.

Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?

Upon awakening, let the words Thank You flow from your lips, for this will remind you to begin your day with gratitude and compassion.

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.

Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the other at the same time. It is extinction that makes creation possible.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

One thing you learn: if you want to reveal yourself, you also have to know where to stop.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

If you strike a child, take care that you strike it in anger, even at the risk of maiming it for life. A blow in cold blood neither can nor should be forgiven.