Tolstoyan Philosophy Quotes & Sayings

Both men and women remain in dysfunctional, loveless relationships when it is materially opportune. — Bell Hooks

The right to die can easily become the duty to die. — Peter Saunders

If she can bite a vulture, she can jump a crack.
~Victor Frankenstein — Kenneth Oppel

With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One. — Lao-Tzu

The reason this system can't be overthrown in this country," Walter said, "is all about freedom. The reason the free market in Europe is tempered by socialism is that they're not so hung up on personal liberties there. They also have lower population growth rates, despite comparable income levels. The Europans are all-around more rational, basically. And the conversation about rights in this country isn't rational. It's taking place on the level of emotion, and class resentments, which is why the right is so good at exploiting it. — Jonathan Franzen

The hour has come to leave for the meeting place where I show him my face. He shall see the dark fire of my eyes and hear the wild wind in my voice. He will feel my presence full of stars, scanning his soul, and he shall know my raw power in his bones. I go to the meeting place where he will surrender to my fierce energy. The dancing, brooding passion goes in the cloak of night to where the human dares not go, but must. I am his destiny and his death, and he knows not my name. — Robert Lloyd

And when you realize, finally, that deeply wounded
things need loyalty more than love-

Then you will see the human race in a way as the earth has been seen
by a few from the moon. — Michael Xavier

There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are. — W. Somerset Maugham

I'm sorry, I says.
Fer what? he says.
Fer always bein ... you know ... so-
Ungrateful? he says.
Yeah, I says.
Ornery?
I guess so.
Rude? Pig-headed? Violent?
I ain't violent!
Oh yes, you are. Very. But I like that in a woman.
I laugh. Yer crazy, I says.
I was fine till I met you, he says. — Moira Young

Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. — Sebastian Junger

One must not permit oneself excesses, except with persons whom one wishes soon to leave. — Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos De Laclos

The wild worship of lawlessness and the materialist worship of law end in the same void. Nietzsche scales staggering mountains, but he turns up ultimately in Tibet. He sits down beside Tolstoy in the land of nothing and Nirvana. They are both helpless - one because he must not grasp anything, and the other because he must not let go of anything. The Tolstoyan's will is frozen by a Buddhist instinct that all special actions are evil. But the Nietzscheite's will is quite equally frozen by his view that all special actions are good; for if all special actions are good, none of them are special. They stand at the crossroads, and one hates all the roads and the other likes all the roads. The result is - well, some things are not hard to calculate. They stand at the cross-roads. — G.K. Chesterton

Accordingly, the one respect in which I depart from my younger self is that I now regard those people who have little or no story to tell themselves as terribly fortunate. — Lionel Shriver

I love nuclear. It does this radiation thing that's tricky (laughter). But they're good solutions. You know, it was interesting; recently, in Connecticut this natural gas plant blew up 11 guys. It just blew them up. — Bill Gates