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
Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that the morality of an action is not determined by public opinion; wrongdoing remains wrong regardless of how many people believe it to be right.
Leo Tolstoy's quote speaks to the importance of individual moral judgment in the face of societal consensus. It asserts that just because many people accept or engage in an action does not make it morally correct. This serves as a reminder that we should uphold our own values and ethics, rather than conforming to the majority, especially when their behavior may be ethically questionable.
Themes
MoralityWrongdoingMajorityEthicsIndividuality
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a debate on ethical issues where public opinion diverges from moral correctness.
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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 β such is my idea of happiness.
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