"The recognition that love represents the highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but words. It was taught that this highest morality was only applicable to private life — for home use, as it were — but that in public life all forms of violence — such as imprisonment, executions, and wars — might be used for the protection of the majority against a minority of evildoers, though such means were diametrically opposed to any vestige of love."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Leo TolstoyAcademics from RussiaNovelists from RussiaEssayists from RussiaShort story writers from Russia
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Leo Tolstoy
1844 – 1930
Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy [Ле́в Никола́евич Толсто́й, usually rendered Leo Tolstoy, or sometimes Tolstoi] (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910) was a Russian writer, philosopher and social activist (social critic), whose novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are internationally praised classics of world literature. He was a major influence on the development of Christian anarchism and pacifism, contributing to such nonviolent resistance movements as those of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King,
304 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Leo Tolstoy →
Related Quotes
"We would think a man insane who, instead of covering his house with a roof and putting windows in his window frames, …"
"But men are now united in states; that work is done; why now maintain exclusive devotion to one's own state, when thi…"
"A king asked a holy man, “Do you remember about me?” The holy man answered, “Yes, I think about you when I forget abo…"
"Everyone talks of changing the world, but no one talks of changing himself."
"It has been said that a careful reading of Anna Karenina, if it teaches you nothing else, will teach you how to make …"
"Tostoy's message has not grown out-of-date. In the present "end of an age" when fear and anxiety and collective crime…"
"The universal is the unfolding of the potential of diverse and multiple locals, acting in self-organized ways but gui…"
"Tolstoy's pacifism, which had profoundly influenced William Jennings Bryan, led Bryan to pursue a sincere search for …"
"People of our generation were divided into supporters of Dostoyevski or Tolstoi, and M. tended to lean toward Tolstoi…"
"It was Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House in Chicago, who most consistently carried Tolstoyan ideas into practice…"