War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published serially, then published in its entirety in 1869. It is regarded as one of Tolstoy’s finest literary achievements and remains a classic of world literature. Profoundly inspirational War and Peace quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
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Famous War and Peace Quotes
Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don’t tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist I really believe he is Antichrist I will have nothing more to do with you. Book one, chapter one, War And Peace
We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom. Leo Tolstoy
Well, what makes you go to war? asked Pierre. What makes me? I don’t know. I have to. War And Peace
Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women. Leo Tolstoy
Pierre, who from the moment Prince Andrew entered the room had watched him with glad, affectionate eyes, now came up and took his arm. War And Peace
The strongest of all warriors are these two Time and Patience. Leo Tolstoy
This black eyed, wide mouthed girl, not pretty but full of life ran to hide her flushed face in the lace of her mother’s mantilla not paying the least attention to her severe remark and began to laugh. War And Peace
If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. Leo Tolstoy
When everything was ready, the stranger opened his eyes, moved to the table, filled a tumbler with tea for himself and one for the beardless old man to whom he passed it. War And Peace
There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. Leo Tolstoy
She laughed, and in fragmentary sentences tried to explain about a doll which she produced from the folds of her frock. And Peace
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
Pierre began to feel a sense of uneasiness, and the need, even the inevitability, of entering into conversation with this stranger. War And Peace
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
The proverbs, of which his talk was full, were those folk sayings which taken without a context seem so insignificant, but when used appositely suddenly acquire a significance of profound wisdom. And Peace
You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. Leo Tolstoy
If everyone made war only according to his own convictions, there would be no war. War And Peace
It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong. Leo Tolstoy
There’s nothing I would wish for, if only I were there. In me alone and in this sun there is so much happiness, but here groans, suffering fear, and this obscurity, this hurry. Again they’re shouting something, and again everybody’s run back somewhere, and I’m running with them. War And Peace
If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed. leo tolstoy
When he related anything it was generally some old and evidently precious memory of his. Christian life, as he called his peasant existence. War And Peace
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here. Leo Tolstoy
Before he looked round Prince Andrew frowned again, expressing his annoyance with whoever was touching his arm, but when he saw Pierre’s beaming face he gave him an unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile. War And Peace
I simply want to live to cause no evil to anyone but myself. Leo Tolstoy
For Moscow society, Pierre was the most dear, kind, intelligent, merry and magnanimous of eccentrics, absentminded and warm hearted, a Russian squire of the old stamp. His purse was always empty, because it was open to everyone. War And Peace
Yes, love, but not the love that loves for something, to gain something, or because of something, but that love that I felt for the first time, when dying, I saw my enemy and yet loved him. I knew that feeling of love which is the essence of the soul, for which no object is needed. And I know that blissful feeling now too. To love one’s neighbours to love one’s enemies. To love everything to Love God in all His manifestations. Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love. And that was why I felt such joy when I felt that I loved that man. What happened to him? Is he alive? Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not
even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. And how many people I have hated in my life. And of all people none I have loved and hated more than her. If it were only possible for me to see her once more once, looking into those eyes to say. Leo Tolstoy
All Moscow society, from old women to children, received Pierre like a long-awaited guest, whose place was always kept ready and vacant. War And Peace
Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid. Leo Tolstoy
Man lives consciously for himself, but serves as an unconscious instrument for the achievement of historical, universally human goals. War And Peace
Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself. Leo Tolstoy
It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more so than in what they consider right and wrong. War And Peace
A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, Today I’m going to cover twenty five miles and then rest up and sleep. Leo Tolstoy
We’re not willing, let them ruin us! We don’t take your grain, we’re not in agreement. War And Peace
Human science fragments everything in order to understand it, kills everything in order to examine it. Leo Tolstoy
What Kutuzov said came not from clever considerations, but from the feeling that was in the soul of the commander in chief, just as it was in the soul of every Russian man. War And Peace
They say sufferings are misfortunes, said Pierre.But if at once this minute, I was asked, would I remain what I was before I was taken prisoner, or go through it all again, I should say, for God’s sake let me rather be a prisoner and eat horseflesh again. We imagine that as soon as we are torn out of our habitual path all is over, but it is only the beginning of something new and good. As long as there is life, there is happiness. There is a great deal, a great deal before us. Leo Tolstoy
An action once committed is irrevocable, and its effect, coinciding in time with millions of actions of the people, acquires historical significance. War And Peace
Here’s my advice to you don’t marry until you can tell yourself that you’ve done all you could, and until you’ve stopped loving the women you’ve chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you’ll be cruelly and irremediably mistaken. Marry when you’re old and good for nothing. Otherwise all that’s good and lofty in you will be lost. Leo Tolstoy
The majority of the people of that time paid not attention to the general course of things, but were guided only by the personal interests of the day. And those people were the most useful figures of that time. War And Peace
A Frenchman’s self assurance stems from his belief that he is mentally and physically irresistibly fascinating to both men and women. An Englishman’s self assurance is founded on his being a citizen of the best organized state in the world and on the fact that, as an Englishman, he always knows what to do, and that whatever he does as an Englishman is unquestionably correct. An Italian is self assured because he is excitable and easily forgets. A Russian is self assured simply because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe in the possibility of knowing anything fully. Leo Tolstoy
The strongest of all warriors are these two Time and Patience. War And Peace
Here I am alive, and it’s not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over. Leo Tolstoy
Loving with human love, one may pass from love to hatred but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not even death, can shatter it. It is the very nature of the soul. War And Peace
What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the willso fo the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person express the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand. Leo Tolstoy
In captivity, in the shed, Pierre had learned, not with his mind, but with his whole being, his life, that man is created for happiness, that happiness is within him, in the satisfying of natural human needs, and that all unhappiness comes not from lack, but from superfluity. War And Peace
Life is everything. Life is God. Everything shifts and moves, and this movement is God. And while there is life, there is delight in the self awareness of the divinity. To love life is to love God. The hardest and most blissful thing is to love this life in one’s suffering, in the guiltlessness of suffering. Leo Tolstoy
Everything I know, I know because of love. War And Peace
Why does an apple fall when it is ripe? Is it brought down by the force of gravity? Is it because its stalk withers? Because it is dried by the sun, because it grows too heavy, or because the boy standing under the tree wants to eat it? None of these is the cause. Every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own freewill is in the historical sense not free at all but is bound up with the whole course of history and preordained from all eternity. Leo Tolstoy
If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. War And Peace
For a few seconds they looked silently into each other’s eyes, and the distant and impossible suddenly became near, possible, and inevitable. Leo Tolstoy
Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy. War And Peace
Though the doctors treated him, let his blood, and gave him medications to drink, he nevertheless recovered. Leo Tolstoy
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. War And Peace
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 Tolstoy
Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait. War And Peace
We imagine that when we are thrown out of our usual ruts all is lost, but it is only then that what is new and good begins. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us. Leo Tolstoy
