Leo Tolstoy
“And there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.”
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869), Book XIV, ch. XVIII — tr. Louise & Aylmer Maude, 1922–23
Documented source
Attribution
Leo Tolstoy
Source
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869), Book XIV, ch. XVIII — tr. Louise & Aylmer Maude, 1922–23
In full
“And there is no greatness where simplicity, goodness, and truth are absent.”
Status
Public domain in the United States
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About this line
Napoleon is fleeing Russia, his army freezing on the road behind him, and the historians are already busy turning the retreat into strategy. Tolstoy stops the entire novel to refuse the myth — and to say plainly what greatness actually requires.
Why we carry this line
This could have been written today. So much truth in the statement. I knew it was destined for our catalog.
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