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
The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life's true value lies in our contributions to a higher purpose or greater good.
This quote by Leo Tolstoy suggests that the essence of our existence is found in our efforts to promote and support the values and ideals of the kingdom of God. It emphasizes the importance of altruism, suggesting that a meaningful life is one dedicated to serving others and striving for a better world.
Themes
LifeSignificanceHelpingKingdom Of GodPurpose
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech at a community service event.
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.
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 β such is my idea of happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
Similar quotes
We have all had times...when we have seen things from God's standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. ...[I]t is in the valley where we live for the glory of God.
Oswald ChambersRead
When my hoe tinkled against the stones, that music echoed to the woods and the sky, and was an accompaniment to my labor which yielded an instant and immeasurable crop. It was no longer beans that I hoed, nor I that hoed beans; and I remembered with as much pity as pride, if I remembered at all, my acquaintances who had gone to the city to attend the oratorios.
Henry David ThoreauRead
God is not limited to any person, but calls freely whomsoever He pleases, and bestows on those who are called whatever rewards He thinks fit.
John CalvinRead
Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world.... It was this vision that gave him his great power, for when he went into a fight, he had only to think of that world to be in it again, so that he could go through anything and not be hurt
Black ElkRead
The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead
This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.
Julian BarnesRead