Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, ; known in the Anglosphere as Leo Tolstoy; September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more about Leo Tolstoy: Life and Career, Novels and Fictional Works, Religious and Political Beliefs, Death, In Films, Further Reading
Famous quotes by leo tolstoy:
“But the peasants—how do the peasants die?”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means—except by getting off his back.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“The chief difference between words and deeds is that words are always intended for men for their approbation, but deeds can be done only for God.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
“Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity.”
—Leo Tolstoy (1829–1910)