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What are wanted ...are not Constitutions and Revolutions, nor all sorts of Conferences and Congresses, nor the many ingenious devices for submarine navigation and aerial navigation, nor powerful explosives, nor all sorts of conveniences to add to the enjoyment of the rich, ruling classes... but one thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth ...that for our life one law is valid - the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind.

Leo Tolstoy#102

LoveHappinessPoliticsProgressTechnology

About this quote

What does it mean?
Political and technological advances are less important than knowing the law of love for happiness.
In plain terms
Love is more important than politics or technology.
What can you take from it?
Focus on the law of love for true happiness.

Where it applies

  • societal planning
  • personal fulfillment

Putting it to work

  • prioritize relationships
  • question material progress

Questions to consider

  • What brings true happiness?
  • Is politics useful?

Another view

It dismisses the tangible benefits of political and scientific progress.

More from Leo Tolstoy

  1. In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.

    Permalink to quote #101
  2. ...the indubitable, eternal truth inherent in man, which is one and the same in all the great religions of the world. It will in due time emerge and make its w…

    Permalink to quote #103
  3. If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in... Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and resurrections, from belief in the interference of the Gods …

    Permalink to quote #100

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