Leo Tolstoy's best quotes
The top 3 according to 0 votes from people: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. · Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. · There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.. (Updated Dec 3, 2025.)
Tolstoy's lines from Anna Karenina, War and Peace, his diaries and essays that people still quote. Only what can be checked on Wikiquote and in the texts themselves.
Automatically translated (original in Русский). See the original
Top 13
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1
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Opening line of Anna Karenina (1877).
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2
Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house.
Anna Karenina, the second sentence of the novel.
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3
There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.
War and Peace, volume IV.
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4
I died — I woke up. Yes, death is an awakening!
Prince Andrei, War and Peace.
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5
Happiness is pleasure without remorse.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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6
Knowledge is a tool, not a goal.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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7
Strictness won't scare children away; the only thing they can't bear is lies.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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8
People are often proud of a clear conscience only because they have a short memory.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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9
All truths are paradoxes.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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10
I am seriously convinced that the world is ruled by complete madmen.
Diary, 12 July 1900.
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11
The point is not to know a lot, but to know, of all that can be known, what is most needed.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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12
Nothing weakens a man so much as hoping to find salvation in anything other than his own effort.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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13
The value of life is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to death.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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14
How truthful a person is shows how morally developed they are.
From Tolstoy's notes.
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