#Tolstoy gives voice to the vast expanse of sky Andrei saw seven years earlier.

'Over the whole field, once so gaily beautiful, with its gleaming bayonets and puffs of smoke in the morning sun, there now hung the murk of dampness and smoke and the strangely acidic smell of saltpeter and blood. Small clouds gathered and rain began to sprinkle on the dead, the wounded, the frightened, and on the exhausted, and on the doubtful men. It was as if it were saying: "Enough, enough, men. Stop now ... Come to your senses. What are you doing?"'

— War and Peace Vol. 3, Part 2. Chapter 39, Pevear and Volokhonsky translation

#bookstodon
#WarAndPeace

Ишь ты, у Льва Толстого был пудель

#Толстой #ЛевТолстой #LeoTolstoy #Tolstoy #LevTolstoy

‘Imagine a problem in psychology: to find a way of getting people in our day and age – Christians, humanitarians, nice, kind people – to commit the most heinous crimes without any feeling of guilt. There is only one solution – doing just what we do now: you make them governors, superintendents, officers or policemen...

Nekhlyudov’s reflections, in Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

From: I You We Them by Dan Gretton
1/2

#quotes
#CrimesAgainstHumanity
#Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

I just got to the part where Varenka is mushroom picking, and catches the eye of an older bachelor, Levin's brother.

Funniest scene so far. Tolstoy has it all. It's hard to believe he is just a few decades after Dickens.

Koznyshev and Varenka are walking farther and farther from the crowd, and more and more by themselves, and are rehearsing how to propose for marriage... and Koznyshev suddenly asks a question about mushrooms. It shatters the mood and they return to the group. I say funny but it's intensely cringey, that kind of funny.

The scene is forshadowed by a blade of dry grass that, as a developing mushroom tried to grow forward, split the mushroom, from one to two. Whooaaaaa.. Ha ha ha. Great chapter. #tolstoy #lit #LitCrit #russianLosses

https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/anna-karenina/varenka.html

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
#annakarenina #tolstoy #quote

Apparently, we've found the secret recipe for becoming a genius: a collection of dusty tomes nobody's read since 1923! 🤓📚 Because, obviously, teenagers are clamoring to discuss #Tolstoy at lunchtime. 🙄
https://onepercentrule.substack.com/p/the-mensa-reading-list-for-grades #geniusrecipe #dustytomes #HackerNews #literaryhumor #HackerNews #ngated

#tolstoy #metacrisis #polycrisis

"God gave food to people, and the devil gave cooks."
— #Tolstoy

I just think it's unintentionally hilarious.

Ah, the existential crisis of #youth with a side of #Tolstoy, because who doesn’t draw life timelines in their early 20s? 📅🖌️ Spoiler alert: when youth fades, you can always glue-stick your face onto someone else's #success. 📚😂
https://tolstoyan.substack.com/p/youth #existentialcrisis #lifetimelines #humor #HackerNews #ngated

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
— Matthew 19:23-24
2/2
#tolstoy

A charity is only then a real charity when it involves sacrifice.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
— James 5:3
In money—in the money itself, in its acquisition, in its possession—there is something immoral.
A truly kind person cannot be rich. A rich person, without question, is not a kind one.
— Chinese proverb
#tolstoy 1/2

@usluck this is not a direct quote from Leo #Tolstoy
The original idea comes from John Gardner, who famously stated:
"There are only two plots: a stranger comes to town, and a man goes on a journey." the third part is an internet meme referring to a Japanese anime #novel.
#books

@calmeilles

Funny, that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F has been written by #Tolstoy .

https://telegra.ph/Qu%C3%A9-es-el-arte-01-27 #poetikablog #art #tolstoy #Poetikagaur

LEO NIKOLAYEVICH #TOLSTOY
January 25th— have fallen in love, or imagine myself
to have fallen in love. It happened at an evening party.
I quite lost my head. I have bought a horse which I do not need
not need.

The same divine beginning lives in all people, and no single person or gathering of people has the right to destroy this connection between the divine beginning and a human body, that is, to take a human life. 4/4
#Tolstoy

When civilians get into these circumstances, they become ashamed of such a way of life. The military, on the contrary, are proud of it and boast of this way of life, especially during periods of war. They say: “We are ready to risk our lives at war, and therefore such a careless joyful life is necessary for us, and we have the right to lead it.” 3/x
#Tolstoy