“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
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Work
<b>Antony's Brigg's acclaimed translation of Tolstoy's great Russian epic. <b>Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s <i>The Great American Read</i></b></b><br><br> Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, <i>War and Peace</i>—presented here in the first new English translation in forty years—is often considered the greatest novel ever written. At its center are Pierre Bezukhov, searching for meaning in his life; cynical Prince Andrei, ennobled by wartime suffering; and Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As Tolstoy follows the changing fortunes of his characters, he crafts a view of humanity that is both epic and intimate and that continues to define fiction at its most resplendent.<br><br> This edition includes an introduction, note on the translation, cast of characters, maps, notes on the major battles depicted, and chapter summaries.<br><br> <b>Praise for Antony Brigg's translation of <i>War and Peace</i>:<br> </b><br> "The best translation so far of Tolstoy's masterpiece into English."<br> -Robert A. Maguire, professor emeritus of Russian studies, Columbia University<br><br> "In Tolstoy's work part of the translator's difficulty lies in conveying not only the simplicity but the subtlety of the book's scale and effect. . . . Briggs has rendered both with a particular exactness and a vigorous precision not to be found, I think, in any previous translation."<br> -John Bayley, author of <i>Elegy for Iris</i><br><br> For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Quotes
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Leo Tolstoy
Canonical work source
“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
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“We are asleep until we fall in Love!”
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“He is not apprehended by reason, but by life.”
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“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
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“If there is a God and future life, there is truth and good, and man's highest happiness consists in striving to attain them. We must live, we must love, and we must believe that we live not...”
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“One must try to make one's life as pleasant as possible. I'm alive and it's not my fault, which means I must somehow go on living the best I can, without bothering anybody, until I die.' 'Bu...”
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“He had learned that, as there is no situation in the world in which a man can be happy and perfectly free, so there is no situation in which he can be perfectly unhappy and unfree.”
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“Human science fragments everything in order to understand it, kills everything in order to examine it.”
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“You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.”
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“Well, pray if you like, only you'd do better to use your judgment.”
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“Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs. If there was no suffering, man would not know his limits, would not know himself.”
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“In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.”
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“God is the same everywhere.”
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“Pierre was right when he said that one must believe in the possibility of happiness in order to be happy, and I now believe in it. Let the dead bury the dead, but while I'm alive, I must liv...”
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“Everything I know, I know because of love.”
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“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”
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“How beautiful the sky looked, how blue and calm and deep! How brilliant and majestic was the setting sun! How tenderly shone the distant waters of the Danube! And fairer still were the purpl...”
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“If there were no suffering, man would not know his limitations, would not know himself.”
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“Life did not stop, and one had to live.”
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“Every man had his personal habits, passions, and impulses toward goodness, beauty, and truth.”
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“It's all God's will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.”
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“When a man sees a dying animal, horror comes over him: that which he himself is, his essence, is obviously being annihilated before his eyes--is ceasing to be. But when the dying one is a pe...”
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“The whole world is divided for me into two parts: one is she, and there is all happiness, hope, light; the other is where she is not, and there is dejection and darkness...”
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“Everything ends in death, everything. Death is terrible.”
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