"All the horrors of the reign of terror were based on concern for public tranquility.
What a terrible thing war is, what a terrible thing!
~ Leo Tolstoy ~
What a terrible thing war is, what a terrible thing!
More Leo Tolstoy quotes
"War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war. Our attitude towards the fearful nec...
"They meet, as we shall meet tomorrow, to murder one another; they kill and maim tens of thousands, and then have thanksgiving services for having kill...
"He was in a fairy kingdom where everything was possible.He looked up at the sky. And the sky was a fairy realm like the earth. It was clearing, and ov...
"And once he had seen this, he could never again see it otherwise, just as we cannot reconstruct an illusion once it has been explained.
"To destroy the life that dwells in othersis beyond your power. The life of those you have slainhas vanished from your eyes, but is not destroyed. Yout...
"They were dealt with as in war, and they naturally employed the means that were used against them.
"...And there really are men who believe in this, who spend their time in promoting Leagues of Peace, in delivering addresses, and in writing books; an...
"Can it be that there is not enough space for man in this beautiful world, under those immeasurable, starry heavens? Is it possible that man's heart ca...
"Davout looked up and gazed intently at him. For some seconds they looked at one another, and that look saved Pierre. Apart from conditions of war and ...
"Millions of men, renouncing their human feelings and reason, had to go from west to east to slay their fellows, just as some centuries previously hord...
"He remembered his mother's love for him, and his family's, and his friends', and the enemy's intention to kill him seemed impossible.
"A battle is won by the side that is absolutely determined to win. Why did we lose the battle of Austerlitz? Our casualties were about the same as thos...
"To us, it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and tortured each other because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander was firm, or b...
"It was necessary that millions of men in whose hands lay the real power -- the soldiers who fired, or transported provisions and guns -- should consen...