When it is impossible to ...

When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of \'greatness.\' \'Greatness,\' it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the \'great\' man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a \'great\' man can be blamed.
When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of 'greatness.' 'Greatness,' it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the 'great' man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a 'great' man can be blamed.
 Leo Tolstoy

Quotes from the same author

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
 See image
 Leo Tolstoy
We lost because we told ourselves we lost.
 See image
 Leo Tolstoy
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
 See image
 Leo Tolstoy
The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.
 See image
 Leo Tolstoy
The life of our class, of the wealthy and the learned, was not only repulsive to me but had lost all meaning. The sum of our action and thinking, of our science and art, all of it struck me as the overindulgences of a spoiled child.
 See image
 Leo Tolstoy