Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ He gave us the commandment of God to follow, he said that those who fulfills it and teaches it to others shall receive much more; he says that only those who keep His commandment shall receive life; he fulfilled this commandment himself, as offering us his example; he expressed this commandment in such an easy and clear way that there can be no doubts about its meaning; and how could I then say that, though I never really tried to fulfill it, this rule was one that it was impossible for a man to keep in his own strength, and without supernatural aid? ”