Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

“ But because the acts that violate the freedom of others are defined variously, depending on what people consider to be an inalienable right of every human being, so the freedom in this definition is nothing else but the permission to do anything that is not prohibited by law; or, strictly and precisely put, freedom, by this definition, is equal for all, under the threat of punishment, prohibition of committing acts that violate what is recognized to be the right of people. ”

“ It cannot be otherwise, because, with this definition, to freedom there has been attributed the property of something positive, whereas freedom is a negative notion. Freedom is the absence of restraint. A person is free only when nobody forbids him to do certain acts under the threat of violence. And therefore in a society in which the rights of people are determined in one way or another, and certain acts are both required and prohibited under a threat of punishment, people cannot be free. ”

“ One refusal from paying taxes or from military conscription on the grounds of that religious and moral law, which governments cannot not recognize, one such firm and clear refusal undermines the foundations on which existing governments stand, thousand times stronger and more effective than the lengthy strikes, than millions of distributed socialist pamphlets, than the most successfully organized riots, or the most desperate political assassinations. ”

“ Only by that the presence in revolutionary activity of the fervor, struggle, delight of risking their freedom and life, - which always attracts young people, — can be explained the fact that smart, ethical people could and continue to indulge in such clearly useless activities. ”

“ Such voluntary obedience to all laws of reason and everybody’s treating all the rest the way he wants to be treated — pertains to the intelligent, common to all, human nature. Such attitude of people toward each other, which fulfills the highest justice, is preached by all religions, and to this state humanity was constantly approaching and approaches. ”

“ We cannot not to recognize the youth temperament and self-denial of people like Khalturin, Rysakov, Mikhailov, and now of the murderers of Bobrikov and von Plehve, who directly sacrificed their lives for achieving the unattainable goal, as well as of others who, enduring the greatest destitutions, risking their freedom and often life, go to people to get them to rebel, or print and distribute revolutionary leaflets ”

“ Most of all, it is pitiful to see that the best moral, selfless, kind people, who were the Perovskaya, Osinsky, Lizogub, and many others (I'm talking only about the dead) , enthused by the passion of struggle, ended up with not only wasting their best strengths on reaching something unattainable, but even with allowing the crime, that is contrary to their whole nature, — murder, and with supporting it, with participating in it. ”

“ It is a pity to see how much energy strong and capable people spent to kill animals, to run on bikes over large spaces, to jump over ditches, to fight, and the like; and it is even more pitiful when this energy is spent to harass people, engage them in dangerous activities that are destroying their lives, or, even worse, - to make dynamite, to blast or just kill someone known as a vicious government person, whose place thousands of even more harmful are prepared to take. ”

“ If at least one hundredth share of the energy that is wasted now by revolutionaries at achieving external unattainable goals, would be spent on the internal spiritual work, then, like snow under summer sun, the evil with which revolutionaries fought and keep vainly fighting would be melted long time ago. ”

“ This is so easy and should be so clear to everybody, if there for so long time ago hadn't been established among people the custom of violence and deliberate, in order to maintain this violence profitable to powerful people, confusion of concepts. People, as rational beings, tend to influence one another by the conviction of reason on the basis of laws of reason common to everybody. ”

“ They are not afraid of attempts of violence because they have in their hands the invincible powers; but against the persuasion of reason, confirmed by a life example, they know they are powerless.
Spiritual activity is the greatest, the most powerful force. It drives the world. ”

“ I wish they would understand that this purpose can only be achieved by clear understanding by each individual of his human purpose and value, and as a result of living that strong religious and moral life which does not allow neither in words nor in practice any deals with the evil of violence which you condemn and wish to destroy. ”

“ I really wish your article to acquire more readers, especially among the youth, so that young people, who do not have binding them past and who sincerely want to serve the well-being of people, would understand that the revolutionary activity they are attracted to not only does not reach the goal they strive for, but, on the contrary, by diverting their best strengths from the direction in which they can really serve God and people, produces mostly the opposite effect ”

“ And to spread this consciousness and to refrain from violence, every human being has always available to him super powerful means: the clarification of this consciousness in himself, i.e. in that part of the world which obeys his thoughts and, as a result of such consciousness, removal of himself from any involvement in violence, and maintaining such life in which violence becomes needless. ”

“ The existing governments has long ago learned their enemies and the risks to which they are exposed, and therefore long time ago they took and now vigilantly continue to undertake all steps to prevent the destruction of that order which keeps them afloat. ”