Leo Tolstoy Quotes

You always have some weaknesses, if you're entirely happy it means you're under-driving it.

Those who, either from their own engagements and hurry of business, or from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected looking out of themselves, as far as my experience and observation reach, have from that time not only ceased to advance, and improve in their performances, but have gone backward. They may be compared to men who have lived upon their principal, till they are reduced to beggary, and left without resources.

What keeps so many people back is simply unwillingness to pay the price, to make the exertion, the effort to sacrifice their ease and comfort.

Complacency is a continuous struggle that we all have to fight.

To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.

The greatest barrier to someone achieving their potential is their denial of it.

The whole point of a sacrifice is that you give up something you never really wanted in the first place. People are doing it around you all the time. They give up their careers, say - or their beliefs - or sex.

The reality is, some people don't want you to change or go anywhere different.

At some point, life starts to pass you by and becomes about avoidance. I want to stay clear from that situation, because I don't like that.

I really try to put myself in uncomfortable situations. Complacency is my enemy.

I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.

For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.

I don't really think in terms of obstacles. My biggest obstacle is always myself.

I admire when people take the harder path, not because they are masochistic and want to beat themselves up, but because you actually kind of learn more and I think you grow more.

Sure, I'm ashamed of a lot of the things I did, but at the same time, I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't gone through those experiences.

It doesn't matter if you come from the inner city. People who fail in life are people who find lots of excuses. It's never too late for a person to recognize that they have potential in themselves.

We must wake ourselves up! Or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown.

I've certainly had a lot of experiences in my life where I was much too self-centered.

I've always been motivated more by negative comments than by positive ones. I know what I do well. Tell me what I don't do well.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I've been in therapy. I know enough about myself now to know that I really don't need to know anymore.

The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

Men take only their needs into consideration - never their abilities.

I am unable to give my best if I don't have my best to give.