Leo Tolstoy Quotes on Politics
The political thought of the later Tolstoy was a radical Christian anarchism, and the quotes gathered here set it out. For Tolstoy the state rests on violence, and violence cannot be reconciled with the meekness and non-resistance he found at the heart of the Gospel, so that government cannot be Christian and a man who would be a Christian must not serve government. He regarded the ordinary obligations of citizenship, from the oath of allegiance to military service, as offences against conscience, and condemned the state as a conspiracy designed not only to exploit but above all to corrupt its citizens. The only true revolution, in his view, is a moral one beginning with the self, for everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself. Drawn largely from The Kingdom of God Is Within You, these passages reject political power in favour of individual moral regeneration.
Quotes
-
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself. -
“The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.”
Sevastopol in May (1855), Ch. 16 -
“I know that my unity with all people cannot be destroyed by national boundaries and government orders.”
My Religion (1884), as translated in The Human Experience : Contemporary American and Soviet Fiction and Poetry (1989) by the Quaker US/USSR Committee -
“For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
War and Peace(1865–1867; 1869) | Bk. XIV, ch. 18 -
“All state obligations are against the conscience of a Christian: the oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings and military service.”
The Kingdom of God is Within You(1894) | Chapter VII , Significance of Compulsory Service -
“Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government.”
Letter to Dr. Eugen Heinrich Schmitt (October 12, 1896), translated by Nathan Haskell Dole -
“The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.”
As quoted in Tolstoy (1988) by A. N. Wilson , p. 146