Authors / Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy quotes

1828–1910 · Russian novelist

Tolstoy wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, then spent his last decades writing moral and religious essays. We quote the Maude and Garnett translations.

4 real · 1 not theirs

Really theirs

4 quotes traced to Leo Tolstoy's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

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

Source: Anna Karenina, opening line (1877), tr. Constance Garnett

Sourced

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

Source: War and Peace, Book 10 (1869) — said by General Kutuzov

Sourced

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

Source: War and Peace, Book 14 (1869)

Attributed

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

Source: Condensed from the essay "Three Methods of Reform" (1900)

Not theirs

1 famous lines credited to Leo Tolstoy that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Not theirs

If you want to be happy, be.

Actually: From the aphorisms of Kozma Prutkov, a fictional author invented by Aleksey Tolstoy (a distant cousin) and friends.