"A genius, an eighty-two year-old thinker and author, loved and respected by the whole world, having to flee like a criminal from his own home! To flee from the bottomless abyss created between persons having dissimilar guiding instincts! Through the cold impenetrable autumn night, Tolstoy ran alone to the nearest stable through the large apple orchard. And behind him, the terrifying specter of being caught and again made to drown in the insufferable surroundings in which he had been suffocated for all of thirty years! Before him, finally, lay moral freedom, so long and so earnestly awaited! Finally, the possibility, though not for long, though only until death, of relief from the pressures on his mind! The possibility of carrying out his much revered duty before his conscience and before toiling humankind! He had been hindered in life. Now he can at last succeed in dying with dignity."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
pp. 139–140
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victor_Lebrun
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Victor Lebrun
1882 – 1979
Victor Lebrun (1882 – 1979) was a French Esperantist writer and a Tolstoyan.
7 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Victor Lebrun →
Related Quotes
"The fate of all founders of moral and religious schools did not escape Tolstoy. He had three types of disciples: thos…"
"In the spiritual world, just as in the physical world, nothing is lost. Where an ember quietly glows, even a breeze c…"
"“Leo Nicolayevich, what is madness?” I asked him … The reply followed. “It is selfishness,” he explained, “the narrow…"
"Nature is like a woman worthy of being placed on a pedestal. In order fully to understand and appreciate her, it is n…"
"Persistent and undiscerning almost to the point of criminality as far as resources were concerned, this woman [Sophia…"
"During this summer [of 1906] the strain between Father and Mother grew deeper. … A young Tolstoyan by the name of Leb…"
"Aux États-Unis la nature, comme la société, n'est pas toujours belle, mais elle est toujours grande."
"I desire, if by any possibility I should become a priest, to be a missionary, and if I am a missionary to be a martyr."
"Persecution is upon us; it will be terrible; we will pass through torrents of blood."
"France must have the blood of the pure to raise her again; which one of us indeed, is worthy to offer his life, and w…"