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
A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that it's possible to live healthily without consuming meat, implying that eating meat is a choice driven by appetite rather than necessity.
Leo Tolstoy's quote reflects an ethical stance on food consumption, emphasizing that humans have the capability to sustain themselves without harming animals. It challenges the justification for meat-eating by asserting that such actions are primarily motivated by personal desire rather than survival needs, thus questioning the morality of taking life for mere culinary pleasure.
Themes
Animal RightsVegetarianismEthical EatingMoralityHealth
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion on healthy eating habits.
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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.
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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 — such is my idea of happiness.
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