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Leo Tolstoy

What Men Live By, and Other Tales

“What Men Live By” is a short story written by Russian author Leo Tolstoy in 1885. It is one of the short stories included in his collection What Men Live By, and Other Tales, published in 1885. The compilation also included the written pieces “The Three Questions”, “The Coffee-House of Surat”, and “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn refers to the story in “Cancer Ward”.
74 printed pages
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Impressions

  • mohammed bashershared an impression6 years ago
    👍Worth reading

Quotes

  • Rubyhas quoted2 years ago
    'Loss and gain are brothers twain.'
  • Rubyhas quoted2 years ago
    All human temples are built on the model of this temple, which is God's own world. Every temple has its fonts, its vaulted roof, its lamps, its pictures or sculptures, its inscriptions, its books of the law, its offerings, its altars and its priests. But in what temple is there such a font as the ocean; such a vault as that of the heavens; such lamps as the sun, moon, and stars; or any figures to be compared with living, loving, mutually-helpful men? Where are there any records of God's goodness so easy to understand as the blessings which God has strewn abroad for man's happiness? Where is there any book of the law so clear to each man as that written in his heart? What sacrifices equal the self-denials which loving men and women make for one another? And what altar can be compared with the heart of a good man, on which God Himself accepts the sacrifice?

    “The higher a man's conception of God, the better will he know Him. And the better he knows God, the nearer will he draw to Him, imitating His goodness, His mercy, and His love of man.
  • Rubyhas quoted2 years ago
    Each man wants to have a special God of his own, or at least a special God for his native land.

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