Eric Hinkle’s Reviews > War and Peace > Status Update

"...the more abstract our activity is and therefore the less connected with the activity of others, the more free it is, and, on the contrary, the more our activity is connected with other people, the more unfree it is."

I guess I like freedom. My favorite activities are unconnected with other people: reading books, collecting records, traveling alone, treating myself to a great beer, avoiding having children ;)

"there is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness, and truth."

"[...] he forgot that a superfluity of life's comforts destroys all the happiness of the satisfaction of one's needs [...]"

"Exhausted men on both sides, without food and rest, began alike to doubt whether they had to go on exterminating each other, hesitation was seen on all faces, and in every soul alike the question arose: 'Why, for whom, should I kill and be killed?' [...] At any moment all these men might become horrified at what they were doing, drop everything, and run away wherever their legs took them."

"[Napoleon], predestined by Providence for the sad, unfree role of executioner of the peoples, assured himself that the goal of his actions was the good of the peoples, and that he could govern the destinies of millions and by means of power be their benefactor!"

Tolstoy paints a telling picture of how patriotism turns into nationalism, and how a sovereign leader can turn into an idol so easily. People weeping and sobbing upon being privileged to catch a glimpse of the great tsar Alexander, and vowing to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in order to die in glory in the tsar's eyesight, and to preserve the honor of the fatherland. Populist brainwashing. 1812 or 2022?

"Millions of men, renouncing their human feelings and their reason, had to go from west to east and kill their own kind, just as, several centuries earlier, hordes of men had gone from east to west, killing their own kind."

"On the 12th of June, the forces of western Europe crossed the borders of Russia, and war began--that is, an event took place contrary to human reason and to the whole of human nature."

Just read several chapters about a worldly Prince in his 30s who has fallen mutually in love with a 16-year-old girl, and her family wholly approves of it. It's part of history (and the present in many places) but it's still sickening. Tolstoy does a great job describing how childish, naive, and innocent the girl is, but does little to explain why the man is so interested in a child. This would deserve a chapter.

"Let the dead bury their dead, but while I'm alive, I must live and be happy."

It's always fun to come across such famous quotes while reading a classic book.