Leo Tolstoy

“ Where could one get land nowadays? The masters’ children have squandered theirs. The merchants have it all in their hands. One cannot rent it from them; they cultivate it themselves. Our lands are held by a Frenchman who bought them of the former landlord. ”

“ Nekhludoff experienced that which happens with a sore place—­it is struck oftener than any other part of the body. But it only seems so because it is more noticeable.
“Can it be possible that it is everywhere the same?” he thought, and asked the driver how much land there was in his village; how much he himself owned, and why he lived in the city.
“There is but an acre to every person. We are renting three acres. There is my father and brother. Another brother is in the army. They are managing it. ”