Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

“ Does humanity end with the savage, the idiot, the dipsomaniac, or the madman? If we draw a line excluding from humanity its lowest representatives, where are we to draw the line? Shall we exclude the Negroes like the Americans, or the Hindus like some Englishmen, or the Jews like some exclude them? If we include all men without exception, why should we not include also the higher animals, many of whom are superior to the lowest specimens of the human race.
We know nothing of humanity as an outer object, and we know nothing of its limits. Humanity is a fiction, and it is impossible to love it. ”

“ And knowing that the distinction I formerly made between my own and other nations is evil, I see the temptation that led me into this evil, and can no longer consciously let myself be drawn into it. It is the erroneous idea that my welfare is linked only with that of my native land, and not with that of all mankind. But I now know that my unity with other people cannot be destroyed by borders and statements of governments that I belong to such and such nation or country. I now know that people are equal everywhere and all are brothers. ”

“ Love is not for someone you love, not for yourself, but for the love itself. It is worth understanding, and immediately all evil gets destroyed from human life and the meaning of it becomes clear and joyful.
“Yes, it would be good. What can be better?” – tell people. – “It’d be good to love and to live for love, if everyone would live this way. But if I will live for love, will be giving everything to another, while others will live for themselves, for their own bodies – what will happen with me and not only with me, but with my family, with those whom I love and I can’t not to love.” ”

“ I do not want to agree with these senseless notions of non-resistance. I cannot renounce my authority and leave only immoral men in control of the government. The Constitution says the government has the right to declare war, and I assent to this and support it, and swear that I will support it. For that reason, I do not cease to be a Christian. War, too, is a Christian duty. Is it not a Christian duty to kill hundreds of thousands of one's fellow-men, to rape women, to raze and burn towns, and to practice every possible cruelty? ”

“ The peculiarity of a slave is that he is a mere tool in the hands of his master, a thing, not a man. That is just what soldiers, officers, and generals are, going to murder and be murdered at the will of a ruler or rulers. Military slavery is an actual fact, and it is the worst form of slavery, especially now when by means of compulsory service it lays its fetters on the necks of all the strong and capable men of a nation, to make them instruments of murder, butchers of human flesh, for that is all they are taken and trained to do. ”

“ Man lives, has children, educates them, grows old, and dies. His children grow up and continue his life, which goes on without intermission from generation to generation, existing just as all else in the world exists – stones, metals, plants, beasts, and all else. Life is life, and we must make the most of it. To live for self alone is irrational. And, therefore, since man has first existed on the earth, each one seeks some aim in life beyond his own individual life. He lives for his children, his family, his nation, for humanity, for all that does not die with his individual life. ”

“ I knew – we all know – that the foundation requirement of the Christian teaching is love toward people. Isn’t all Christianity summed up in the words, ‘turn the other cheek’, ‘love your enemies’? I had known that from my earliest childhood. How was it, then, that I had not hitherto taken in these words in all their simplicity, but rather had sought for some allegorical meaning in them? ‘Do not resist evil’ means never to resist evil, i.e., never commit violence to anyone. If a man reviles you, do not revile him in return; suffer, but do no violence. ”

“ To know everything, to be able to do everything, to win everybody! By means of truth to make mankind higher and happier! And here, gentlemen, you, young people, are coming onto stage. I’m saying, young people - something indefinite, distant and deep as the sea: because where are they - the youth? What will they be in reality? Who are called to speak in the name of them? I should stick to those thoughts, which are attributed to them. And if these thoughts do not belong to many of you, I ask you to forgive me in advance. ”

“ But, if in order to gain freedom, people need only to wish for it, can really anybody be found in the whole world who would consider it too costly, once it can be attained by just the desire for freedom?
Poor, unhappy, mindless people, the persistent in their evil, blind to their goodness, you allow to be rid of the most part of your income, robbed of your fields, your home; you live as if all of this did not belong to you, allow to take your conscience away from you, agree to be killers. ”

“ Who will live by my teaching and follow my commandments, he’ll get to know the Father. I will die, and worldly people won’t see me, but my spirit will not die, and you will live by it. And then you’ll realize that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And Judas, not Iscariot but another one, said to him again: “Why will your spirit enter only us, but not all people?” And Jesus answered: “The Father loves him who follows my teaching, and my spirit lives in him. The Father does not love him who does not follow my teaching, and His spirit does not live in him. ”

“ I can remember perfectly well that the feeling of enmity toward other nations, the assumption that a difference existed between them and myself, was not a feeling natural to me, but was grafted upon me by the senseless education given to me. But I now understand the meaning of the words, ‘Love your enemies, do good to them.’ You are all the children of one Father, therefore be like the Father; that is, make no distinction between people, treat all equally. I now see clearly that I can only attain happiness by recognizing my unity with all people of the world without exception. ”

“ War! Fighting! Slaughter! Massacres of men! And we have now, in our century, with our civilization, with the spread of science, and the degree of philosophy that the genius of man is supposed to have attained, schools for training to kill, to kill very far off, to perfection, great numbers at once, to kill poor, dismal, innocent men, supporting their families, and without any kind of trial.
“And what is most bewildering is that the people do not rise against their government, be it a monarchy or a republic. The most bewildering is that the whole of society is not in revolt at the word war. ”

“ When we complain about life, saying that our life is poorly designed, – we don’t realize it’s not that our life is badly designed but that we don’t do what is needed. And it’s just as if a drunkard began to complain that he became a drunkard because many restaurants and pubs are around, while these many restaurants and taverns are around just because many of drunkards like him have appeared.
The life is given to people as a blessing, if only they used it as they should have. If only people lived not in hate toward each other, but in love, the life would be perpetual blessing for all. ”

“ Even so faith, if it does not have works, is dead, being alone. Yes, a man may say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God; you do well. The devils also believe, and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? See how faith worked with his deeds, and by his deeds his faith was made perfect? ”

“ Christ says, ‘Do not resist evil.’ The sole object of courts of law is – to resist evil. Christ enjoins us to return good for evil. Courts of law return evil for evil. Christ says, ‘Make no distinction between the just and the unjust.’ Courts of law do nothing else. Christ says, ‘Forgive all. Forgive not once, not seven times, but forgive without end.’ ‘Love your enemies.’ ‘Do good to those who hate you.’ Courts of law do not forgive, but they punish; they do not do good, but evil, to those whom they call the enemies of society. ”

“ To love – for one’s own sake, through personal pride – one’s tribe, one’s nation, though not so natural, is nevertheless common. Love of one’s own people who are of the same blood, the same tongue, and the same religion as one’s self is possible, though far from being so strong as love of self, or even love of family or clan. But love for a state, such as Turkey, Germany, England, Austria, or Russia is a thing almost impossible. ”

“ The principle ‘not to resist evil’ is one that contains the whole substance of Christ’s teaching, but only when we consider it not only as a saying, but also as a law we are bound to obey.
It is like a latchkey that will open any door, but only if it is well inserted into the lock. To consider this rule of life as a principle that cannot be obeyed without supernatural aid is to annihilate the whole teaching of Christ completely. How can a teaching, the fundamental law of which is cast aside as impracticable, be considered practicable in any of its details? ”

“ Almost from the first years of my childhood, when I began to read the gospel for myself, the teaching that professes love, humility, meekness, self-denial, and returning good for evil was the teaching that touched me most. I always considered it as the basic teaching of Christianity and loved it as such; but it was only after a long period of unbelief that its full meaning flashed upon me, that I understood ‘life’ as our unlettered working classes understand it, and accepted the same creed that they profess, the creed of the Greek Orthodox Church. ”

“ In regards to those few people who oppress the rest, you do not need to win them over, do not need to protect yourselves from them - they are always defeated, if only people would not agree to be slaves. No need to take anything away from them, need only to give them nothing, and the people will be free. So when the peoples submit themselves to the power of their oppressors, they are cutting their own throats. The people, who can be free, give away their own freedom, put the yoke on their own neck, not only agree with their own oppression, but search for it. ”

“ The greatest villains of mankind, such as Nero and Peter the First, have always been particularly busy and preoccupied, not leaving a moment to stay with themselves without occupation or amusements.
But even if the love of work is not an obvious vice, it can under no circumstances called a virtue. Work can be just as little virtue as food. Work is a need, denial of which causes suffering, but it is not a noble cause. Exalting work to a virtue just as ugly, as exalting of food taking to goodness and virtue. ”

“ We do not and cannot know what is the essence of common well-being, but we know very well that it can only be achieved through fulfilling the law of goodness that has been revealed to each person.’
‘If only instead of wishing to save the world people wished to save themselves, to liberate themselves rather than humanity, they would be doing so much more for the salvation of the world and the freedom of humanity.’ (Herzen)
In both personal and public life there is only one law: if you wish to improve life, be prepared to sacrifice it. ”

“ Whether he is master or slave, the man of today cannot help constantly feeling the painful opposition between his conscience and actual life, and the miseries resulting from it.
The toiling masses, the immense majority of mankind who are suffering under the incessant, meaningless, and hopeless toil and privation in which their whole life is swallowed up, still find their keenest suffering in the glaring contrast between what is and what ought to be, according to all the beliefs held by themselves, and those who have brought them to that condition and keep them in it. ”