Sublime

In the first moment he felt like a man who, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, turns with vexation and a desire for revenge to find out who did it, and realizes that he has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with and he must endure and ease the pain.

He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has plucked, in which he can barely recognize the beauty that had made him pluck and destroy it.

The Christianity of Tolstoy is, when we come to consider it, one of the most thrilling and dramatic incidents in our modern civilisation.

The whole of Christ’s teaching is to be found in his last commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you, and therefore everybody will know that, if you love one another, you are my disciples.” He does not say “if you have faith in this or that”, but “if you love”. Faith changes with people’s opinions and knowledge; it is associated with time