There are people who, on meeting a successful rival, no matter in what, are at once disposed to turn their backs on everything good in him, and to se… - Leo Tolstoy
""
There are people who, on meeting a successful rival, no matter in what, are at once disposed to turn their backs on everything good in him, and to see only what is bad. There are people, on the other hand, who desire above all to find in that lucky rival the qualities by which he has outstripped them, and seek with a throbbing ache at heart only what is good.
Lev Nikolayevitch Tolstoy [Ле́в Никола́евич Толсто́й, usually rendered Leo Tolstoy, or sometimes Tolstoi] (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910) was a Russian writer, philosopher and social activist (social critic), whose novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are internationally praised classics of world literature. He was a major influence on the development of Christian anarchism and pacifism, contributing to such nonviolent resistance movements as those of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Pen Names:
Л. Н. Т.
•
Л. Н.
Birth Name:
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Native Name:
Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й
Alternative Names:
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
•
Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910
•
Tolstoĭ, Lev Nikolaevich, graf, 1828-1910
•
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoĭ
•
Leo Tolstoi
•
Tolstoĭ, Lev Nikolaevich, graf
•
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
The whole life of the upper classes is a constant inconsistency. The more delicate a man's conscience is, the more painful this contradiction is to him.