Quotation
Quote by Leo Tolstoy
And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.
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Understanding this quote
The quote points to a common imbalance: people often want to reform society or other people, while overlooking their own habits and behavior. “Changing himself” means taking personal responsibility instead of treating humanity’s problems as someone else’s task. The contrast suggests that lasting improvement may begin with the individual, not only with broad plans to change the world.
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- Source
- Tolstoy Archive, *Some Social Remedies* (1900), “Three Methods of Reform”
- Format
- Official Statement
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