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
He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True happiness comes from selflessly serving others.
This quote by Leo Tolstoy emphasizes the idea that genuine happiness is not found in the pursuit of personal gain or pleasure but instead in the act of living for the benefit of others. It suggests that fulfillment arises from acts of kindness, generosity, and service, highlighting the interconnectedness of humanity and the joy that can be derived from helping those around us.
Themes
HappinessServiceSelflessnessFulfillmentCommunity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about volunteer work, one could quote Tolstoy to inspire others to give back to the community.
More from Leo Tolstoy
All quotes →Pierre 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.
Leo TolstoyRead
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.
Leo TolstoyRead
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 — such is my idea of happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
Similar quotes
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
At that moment a very good thing was happening to her. Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for someone.
Frances Hodgson BurnettRead
The pursuit of happiness, which American citizens are obliged to undertake, tends to involve them in trying to perpetuate the moods, tastes and aptitudes of youth.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
Happiness isn't a fortune in a cookie. It's deeper, wider, funnier, and more transporting than that.
Elvis CostelloRead
You deserve all the good things that happen to you. Don't feel guilty and accept the blessings.
Paulo CoelhoRead
I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer. There were the most beautiful bevies of girls everywhere I looked in Des Moines that afternoon—they were coming home from high school—but I had no time for thoughts like that…So I rushed past the pretty girls, and the prettiest girls in the world live in Des Moines.
Jack KerouacRead