What Men Live By

by

Leo Tolstoy

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Chapter 1 Quotes

And if he doesn’t throttle me I might get lumbered with looking after him. But how can I help a naked man? I couldn’t let him have the last shirt off my back.

Related Characters: Semyon (speaker), Mikhail
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:

‘Please God, help me!’

Related Characters: Semyon (speaker), Mikhail
Page Number: 125
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

[Matryona’s] heart seemed to melt and she felt that she wanted to banish all those spiteful feelings and to find out who that man really was.

Related Characters: Semyon, Mikhail, Matryona
Related Symbols: Coats
Page Number: 130
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

‘We’re always giving, but why does nobody ever give us anything?’

Related Characters: Matryona (speaker), Semyon, Mikhail
Related Symbols: Bread
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

Mikhail kept staring until suddenly he smiled and his whole face lit up.

‘What are you grinning at, idiot?’ the gentleman asked. ‘You’d better see to it that the boots are ready on time!’

Related Characters: The Gentleman (speaker), Semyon, Mikhail
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7 Quotes

Matryona went over to watch Mikhail working and was amazed to see what he was doing.

Related Characters: Semyon, Mikhail, Matryona, The Gentleman, Marya
Page Number: 135
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

“I was young, strong and well-nourished and God gave me so much milk that it filled my breasts to overflowing. Sometimes I’d feed two at one time, with the third waiting, and when one had had its fill, I’d put the third to my breast. But it was God’s will that I should nurse these little girls and bury my own child before he was two years old.”

Related Characters: Marya (speaker)
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

“‘Children cannot live without a father or mother,’ she pleaded. So I did not take that woman’s soul.”

Related Characters: Mikhail (speaker), The Gentleman, Marya
Related Symbols: Bread
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“And I could hear this man wondering how to protect his body from the winter cold and feed his wife and children. And I thought, ‘I am perishing with cold and hunger, but here is someone whose only thought is how to find a warm coat for himself and his wife, and food for his family.’”

Related Characters: Mikhail (speaker), Semyon, Matryona, The Gentleman
Related Symbols: Coats
Page Number: 142
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

‘I came to understand that God does not wish men to live apart and that is why He does not reveal to each man what he needs for himself alone.’

Related Characters: Mikhail (speaker), The Gentleman
Page Number: 143
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.