Art begins when a man, with a purpose of communicating to other people a feeling he once experienced, calls it up again within himself and expresses it by certain external signs.
Leo TolstoyRead
Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness is often abstract and idealized, while unhappiness tends to be tangible and concrete.
In this quote, Leo Tolstoy suggests that happiness is often depicted in allegorical terms – it is an ideal or concept that can be difficult to grasp in real life. Conversely, unhappiness is a story that we can relate to more directly because it contains specific experiences and emotions that resonate with our daily lives, making it more relatable and real.
Themes
HappinessUnhappinessStoryAllegoryLife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion on the complexities of emotions in a mental health workshop.
More from Leo Tolstoy
All quotes →Pierre looked into the sky, into the depths of the retreating, twinkling stars. "And all this is mine, and all this is in me, and all this is me!" thought Pierre. "And all this they've caught and put in a shed and boarded it up!
Leo TolstoyRead
People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
Leo TolstoyRead
It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.
Leo TolstoyRead
Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be described in words with such difficulty, are directly conveyed to man in music, and in that is its power and significance.
Leo TolstoyRead
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
Leo TolstoyRead
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