Anna Karenina Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with Anna Karenina.

In my considered opinion, salary is payment for goods delive

In my considered opinion, salary is payment for goods delivered and it must conform to the law of supply and demand. If, therefore, the fixed salary is a violation of this law - as, for instance, when I see two engineers leaving college together and both equally well trained and efficient, and one getting forty thousand while the other only earns two thousand , or when lawyers and hussars, possessing no special qualifications, are appointed directors of banks with huge salaries - I can only conclude that their salaries are not fixed according to the law of supply and demand but simply by personal influence. And this is an abuse important in itself and having a deleterious effect on government service.

Government Economics Anna Karenina Tolstoy Salaries Supply And Demand

...the more he did nothing, the less time he had to do anyth

...the more he did nothing, the less time he had to do anything.

Truth Anna Karenina

Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mild

Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts,, actions! They are all but grains of sand

Life Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Life Philosophy

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

Beauty Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Charm Diversity

he was afraid of defiling the love which filled his soul.

he was afraid of defiling the love which filled his soul.

Fear Love Anna Karenina Levin

Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been establish

Between Countess Nordston and Levin there had been established those relations, not infrequent in society, in which two persons, while ostensibly remaining on friendly terms, are contemptuous of each other to such a degree that they cannot even treat each other seriously and cannot even insult each one another.

Relationships Anna Karenina Contempt

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids

He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.

Love Flattery Admiration Anna Karenina Tolstoy Sun Avoiding Gaze Stare

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effect

If goodness has causes, it is not goodness; if it has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect.

Religion Goodness Anna Karenina

The more mental effort he made the clearer he saw that it wa

The more mental effort he made the clearer he saw that it was undoubtedly so: that he had really forgotten and overlooked one little circumstance in life - that Death would come and end everything, so that it was useless to begin anything, and that there was no help for it, Yes it was terrible but true

Life Death Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor

But every acquisition that is disproportionate to the labor spent on it is dishonest.

Work Capitalism Anna Karenina Labor Leo Tolstoy Hierarchy Honest Dishonest

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anyth

it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

Good Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Deeds

The Lord had given them the day and the Lord had given them

The Lord had given them the day and the Lord had given them the strength. And the day and the strength had been dedicated to labor, and the labor was its reward. Who was the labor for? What would be its fruits? These were irrelevant and idle questions.

Anna Karenina Labor Day Tolstoy Lord Rewards

And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of in

And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect.

Pride Anna Karenina Stupidity Intellect Dishonesty Tolstoy Trickery

He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he ha

He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he had plucked, in which it was difficult for him to trace the beauty that had made him pick and so destroy it

Love Despair Sadness Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

But that's the whole aim of civilization: to make everything

But that's the whole aim of civilization: to make everything a source of enjoyment.

Enjoyment Civilization Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy

The acquisition by dishonest means and cunning,' said Levin,

The acquisition by dishonest means and cunning,' said Levin, feeling that he was incapable of clearly defining the borderline between honesty and dishonesty. 'Like the profits made by banks,' he went on. 'This is evil, I mean, the acquisition of enormous fortunes without work, as it used to be with the spirit monopolists. Only the form has changed. Hardly were the monopolies abolished before railways and banks appeared: just another way of making money without work.

Work Anna Karenina Banks Earnings Labor Leo Tolstoy Monopolies Profits Railways