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 whole trouble lies in that people think that there are conditions excluding the necessity of love in their intercourse with man, but such conditions do not exist. Things may be treated without love; one may chop wood, make bricks, forge iron without love, but one can no more deal with people without love than one can handle bees without care.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love is essential in all human interactions.
In this quote, Tolstoy emphasizes that while certain tasks can be completed without love—like chopping wood or forging iron—human interactions require love and care. He compares dealing with people to handling bees, suggesting that just as bees need careful handling to avoid harm, so too do our relationships need the nurturing quality of love to thrive.
Themes
LoveRelationshipsHuman InteractionCareTolstoy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about teamwork, one could say, 'As Tolstoy noted, love is fundamental in our interactions.'
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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.
Leo TolstoyRead
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