February 20, 2009: Tolstoy on Idleness - 0 Comments

A secret voice tells us that we should feel guilty for being idle. If man could find a condition in which, while idle, he felt that he was being useful and was fulfilling his duty, he would have found one side of primordial blessedness. And this state of obligatory and irreproachable idleness is enjoyed by an entire class--the military.

- Tolstoy, War & Peace, 1868.

February 7, 2009: Tolstoy on the Truth - 0 Comments

"He could not simply tell them that they all set off at a trot, he fell off his horse, dislocated his arm, and ran to the woods as fast as he could to escape a Frenchman. Besides, in order to tell everything as it had been, one would have to make an effort with oneself so as to tell only what had been. To tell the truth is very difficult, and young men are rarely capable of it."

- Tolstoy, War & Peace, 1868.