(Summary) “Anna Karenina” is a novel by Leo Tolstoy published in 1878. The story is set in late 19th century Russia and follows the lives of several characters, including the titular Anna Karenina, a married woman who falls in love with a young army officer, Count Vronsky.
Anna’s affair with Vronsky leads to social scandal and personal turmoil, and she ultimately chooses to leave her husband and young son to be with Vronsky. However, their relationship is plagued by jealousy and insecurity, and Anna spirals into a deep depression.
Meanwhile, another storyline follows the life of Levin, a landowner who struggles with his own sense of purpose and meaning in life. He eventually finds fulfillment in his relationship with Kitty, who initially rejects him for Vronsky but later realizes her true feelings for Levin.
The novel explores themes of love, passion, jealousy, and the struggle to find meaning in life. It also provides a detailed portrayal of Russian society, including its rigid social hierarchy and the changing attitudes towards industrialization and modernization.
In the end, Anna’s affair with Vronsky leads to her tragic downfall, while Levin finds peace and happiness in his relationship with Kitty and his connection to nature. The novel ends with the famous line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
1. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
2. “All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”
3. “I think… if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”
4. “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
5. “I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be.”
6. “The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire.”
7. “I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
8. “He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.”
9. “Everything intelligent is so boring.”
10. “It is better to know what is important in life than to know everything about everything.”
11. “The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.”
12. “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.”
13. “A man can never know all of his own weaknesses.”
14. “Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
15. “The very fact of the death of someone close to us is what makes us realize that we are alive.”
16. “If you want to be happy, be.”
17. “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.”
18. “We are asleep until we fall in Love!”
19. “All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”
20. “The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.”
21. “Boredom: the desire for desires.”
22. “There was no solution, but that universal solution which life gives to all questions, even the most complex and insoluble. That answer is: one must live for the needs of the day, in other words, become oblivious.”
23. “And so it came about that the two men were closer to each other in the dark, not seeing each other, and that they talked in those whispers that start from the heart and only reach the ear when they are in love, when they want to be understood and forgiven.”
24. “I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. 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.”
25. “All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.”
26. “The only thing that we know is that we know nothing – and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.”
27. “The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.”
28. “If you love me as you say you do,’ she whispered, ‘make it so that I am at peace.’”
