Leo Tolstoy was born on this day, September 9, 1828. His epic novels, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are monumental works of realism that portrayed Russian society and explored the human condition.
He underwent a profound spiritual and moral crisis in middle age, eventually rejecting many conventions of the Russian Orthodox Church and developing a philosophy centered on nonviolence, simplicity, conscience, and love. His later ideas influenced figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Music was extremely important to Tolstoy. His novella The Kreutzer Sonata takes its title from Beethoven’s famous violin sonata and uses music as a vehicle for exploring passion, jealousy, sexuality, and marriage.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
“If you look for perfection, you will never be content.”
“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
