Leo Tolstoy

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

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

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

The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.

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…

Whatever our fate is or may be, we have made it and do not complain of it. – Vronksy (Anna Karenina)

The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.

For character too is a process and an unfolding… among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman – repose in energy.

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

It’s a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the one who is wise.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.

We women are always in danger of living too exclusively in the affections; and though our affections are perhaps the best gifts we have, we ought also to have our share of the more independent life — some joy in things for their own sake. It is piteous to see the helplessness of some sweet women when their affections are disappointed — because all their teaching has been, that they can only delight in study of any kind for the sake of a personal love. They have never contemplated an independent delight in ideas as an experience which they could confess without being laughed at. Yet surely women need this defense against passionate affliction even more than men.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

The rain comes and what bends will rise. It is a purposeful journey.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.