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
Today, nobody sees, or wishes to see, that in our time the enslavement of the majority of men is based on money taxes, levied on land and otherwise, which are collected by government from the subjects.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the financial control exerted by governments over individuals through taxation.
Leo Tolstoy's quote highlights the often-overlooked reality that many individuals are subjugated not by overt enslavement, but by the economic systems in place, specifically through taxation imposed by the government. He suggests that this financial control creates a form of enslavement, as the majority of people may not realize how deeply they are affected by these structures that prioritize revenue over individual freedom.
Themes
SlaveryMoneyTaxationGovernmentControl
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about economic inequality at public forums.
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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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