"We are shocked by thieves taking pride in their clever touch, prostitutes in their depravity and murderers in their callousness. But it is shocking only because the atmosphere of the circles they move in is restricted, and - what matters most - we are on the outside. But isn't the same thing happening when rich men take pride in their wealth (which is theft), military commanders in their victories (which are murder) and rulers in their power (which is violence)? We do not see them as people who corrupt the concept of life, or good and evil, in order to justify their own situation, but only because the circles of people who share these corrupt concepts are wider, and we belong to them."

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About Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist and moral thinker best known for War and Peace and Anna Karenina. His fiction and essays addressed ethics, religion, and social reform. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest novelists in world literature.

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