Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15)
Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15)
What it means
Pierre dreams this as a prisoner on the retreat from Moscow. Loving life when it is easy takes no effort. Loving it while you suffer is the real test.
The source
"Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering." Leo Tolstoy said it in War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15). Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922.
"To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one’s sufferings, in innocent sufferings."Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922, War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15). Text read at gutenberg.org.
Who said it
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Russian novelist who wrote War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), then spent his later life on questions of faith and simple living.
Questions
- What does "Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering." mean?
- Pierre dreams this as a prisoner on the retreat from Moscow. Loving life when it is easy takes no effort. Loving it while you suffer is the real test.
- Who said "Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering."?
- Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910). Source: War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15).
- What is the original wording?
- To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one’s sufferings, in innocent sufferings (Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922). Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922.
- Is "Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering." on a shirt?
- Yes. We print it to order on our tees in 6 illustrated looks, from $44, with free US shipping.
Cite this line
"Hardest and most blessed of all: to love this life in your suffering." (Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 15 (Maude Book 14, ch. 15), trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922). https://spartansurfers.com/quotes/hardest-and-most-blessed-of-all-to-love
Filed under Quotes about discipline and grit.
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More from Leo Tolstoy
- Nothing is stronger than patience and time. They do it all.War and Peace, Vol. 3, Part 2, ch. 16 (Maude Book 10, ch. 16)
- We can know only that we know nothing. That is the height of wisdom.War and Peace, Vol. 2, Part 2, ch. 1 (Maude Book 5, ch. 1)
- Everything I understand, I understand only because I love.War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 1, ch. 16 (Maude Book 12, ch. 16)
- There is no greatness without simplicity, goodness and truth.War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 3, ch. 18 (Maude Book 14, ch. 18)
- Thrown out of your usual rut? That is where the new and good begins.War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 4, ch. 17 (Maude Book 15, ch. 17)
- While there is life, there is happiness.War and Peace, Vol. 4, Part 4, ch. 17 (Maude Book 15, ch. 17)