The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession Quotes

“Every answer from faith gives the finite existence of man a meaning of the infinite - a meaning that is not destroyed by suffering, privations and death. That means in faith alone can one find the meaning and potential of life.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession

“What will come from what I do and from what I will do tomorrow—what will come from my whole life? Expressed differently, the question would be this: Why should I live, why should I wish for anything, why should I do anything? One can put the question differently again: Is there any meaning in my life that wouldn't be destroyed by the death that inevitably awaits me?”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession

“These people are the most fundamental unbelievers, because if faith for them is a means of attaining some worldly goals, then that is certainly not faith.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession

“Every man has come into the world by God’s will. And God has so created man that every man can destroy his soul or save it. Man’s task in life is to save the soul; to save his soul he must live God’s way, and to live God’s way he must renounce all the pleasures of life, labor, submit, endure, and be merciful.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession

“What will come from what I do and from what I will do tomorrow—what will come from my whole life?”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession