99+ Best Anna Karenina Quotes: Exclusive Selection

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Many writers consider Anna Karenina the greatest work of literature ever, and Tolstoy himself called it his first true novel. Profoundly inspirational Anna Karenina quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.

If you’re searching for deep quotes from books that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of significant War and Peace quotes, best Crime and Punishment quotes and greatest Les Miserables quotes.

Famous Anna Karenina Quotes

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content. Leo Tolstoy

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

All that day she had had the feeling that she was playing in the theater with actors better than herself and that her poor playing spoiled the whole thing.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Leo Tolstoy

All the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human feelings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class herself alone had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity.

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. Leo Tolstoy

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking. Leo Tolstoy

Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver!

I think if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts. Leo Tolstoy

But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom. Leo Tolstoy

Energy rests upon love; and come as it will, there’s no forcing it.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. Leo Tolstoy

Every heart has its own skeletons.

If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. Leo Tolstoy

Everything intelligent is so boring.

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them. Leo Tolstoy

He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation.

Spring is the time of plans and projects. Leo Tolstoy

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.

If you want to be happy, be. Leo Tolstoy

I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels? Leo Tolstoy

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

Spring is the time of plans and projects. Leo Tolstoy

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women. Leo Tolstoy

If you love me as you say you do, make it so that I am at peace.

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. Leo Tolstoy

In infinite time, in infinite matter, in infinite space, is formed a bubble organism, and that bubble lasts a while and bursts, and that bubble is Me.

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.  Leo Tolstoy

It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it. Leo Tolstoy

I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be.

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you’d like them to be. Leo Tolstoy

Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand.

I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be. Leo Tolstoy

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking Leo Tolstoy

Something magical has happened to me: like a dream when one feels frightened and creepy, and suddenly wakes up to the knowledge that no such terrors exist. I have wakened up.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time. Leo Tolstoy

There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.

Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver! Leo Tolstoy

They’ve got no idea what happiness is, they don’t know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us there is no life.

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow. Leo Tolstoy

To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.

The strongest of all warriors are these two  Time and Patience. Leo Tolstoy

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.

If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. Leo Tolstoy

Whatever our fate is or may be, we have made it and do not complain of it.

Anything is better than lies and deceit! Leo Tolstoy

The only happy marriages I know are arranged ones. Leo Tolstoy

A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. Leo Tolstoy

The French fashion  of the parents arranging their children’s future  was not accepted; it was condemned. Leo Tolstoy

Boredom: the desire for desires. Leo Tolstoy

She saw them, helped them, got more and more interested in them, and now the whole family is on her hands. Leo Tolstoy

There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. Leo Tolstoy

In order to carry through any undertaking in family life, there must necessarily be either complete division between the husband and wife, or loving agreement. Leo Tolstoy

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source. Leo Tolstoy

His ideas of marriage were, consequently, quite unlike those of the great majority of his acquaintances, for whom getting married was one of the numerous facts of social life. Konstantin

I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be. Dolly Leo Tolstoy

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. Leo Tolstoy

Whatever our fate is or maybe, we have made it and do not complain of it.

All the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except her, and they had all the usual human feelings and were very ordinary girls; while the other class herself alone had no weaknesses and was superior to all humanity. Leo Tolstoy

It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it. Leo Tolstoy

Sometimes she did not know what she feared, what she desired: whether she feared or desired what had been or what would be, and precisely what she desired, she did not know. Leo Tolstoy

And you know, there’s less charm in life when you think about death–but it’s more peaceful. Leo Tolstoy

The best stories don’t come from good vs. bad but good vs. good. Leo Tolstoy

There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way. Leo Tolstoy

If you love me as you say you do,’ she whispered, ‘make it so that I am at peace. Leo Tolstoy

They’ve got no idea what happiness is, they don’t know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us there is no life. Leo Tolstoy

Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them. Leo Tolstoy

But I’m glad you’ll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn’t want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don’t want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven’t I? Leo Tolstoy

The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness Leo Tolstoy

Love those you hate you. Leo Tolstoy

They’ve got no idea what happiness is, they don’t know that without this love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us there is no life. Leo Tolstoy

He was afraid of defiling the love which filled his soul. Leo Tolstoy

Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I’m alive, I must live and be happy. Leo Tolstoy

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. Leo Tolstoy

You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. Leo Tolstoy

Love. The reason I dislike that word is that it means too much for me, far more than you can understand. Leo Tolstoy

But I’m glad you’ll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn’t want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don’t want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven’t I Leo Tolstoy

He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking. Leo Tolstoy

True life is lived when tiny changes occur. Leo Tolstoy

I’ve always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, just as he or she is, and not as you would like them to be. Leo Tolstoy

But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable. Leo Tolstoy

Teach French and unteach sincerity. Leo Tolstoy

It’s hard to love a woman and do anything. Leo Tolstoy

Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver! Leo Tolstoy

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed. Leo Tolstoy

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. Leo Tolstoy

We are asleep until we fall in Love! Leo Tolstoy

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest. Leo Tolstoy

He soon felt that the fulfillment of his desires gave him only one grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. This fulfillment showed him the eternal error men make in imagining that their happiness depends on the realization of their desires. Leo Tolstoy