Leo Tolstoy

“It is dreadful to draw near to Tolstoy—so immense and mighty he is; and in timid amazement you stand at the foot of this human mountain. The cyclopean structure of his spirit overwhelms the researcher. True, Russia is accustomed to Tolstoy; for a long time she has gone along with him, and it is hard to imagine her without this long-standing indispensable companion. But after all, he revealed himself to Russia gradually, step by step, writing—one after another—the pages of his imperishable book; and from the time when, with a shy hand, a young artilleryman sent to Nekrasov his first stories as the beginner author, and up to the moment when, in Russia’s spiritual calendar, the mournful date of 7 November 1910 appeared, nearly seventy years had already passed…”