Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Leo TolstoyRead
All governments are in equal measure good and evil. The best ideal is anarchy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Governments have both positive and negative aspects, and the ultimate ideal is to have no government at all.
In this quote, Tolstoy suggests that every government embodies both beneficial and harmful qualities, reflecting the complexities of power and authority. He posits that true freedom and the highest ideal of society might be achieved in the absence of government, which he views as a source of both good and evil in human affairs.
Themes
GovernmentAnarchyPhilosophyAuthorityFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about political freedom, one might quote Tolstoy to emphasize the need for minimal government intervention.
More from Leo Tolstoy
All quotes βPierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!
Leo TolstoyRead
People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
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It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
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Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.
Leo TolstoyRead
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor β such is my idea of happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
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