"I could not say that I believed what it was impossible for me to believe, and I have always believed what I said I believed. This was as much as rested with me."
Compare Tolstoy's letter to the Holy Synod:
"It may be that my beliefs are embarrassing or displeasing. It is not within my power to change them, just as it is not in my power to change my body. I cannot believe anything but what I believe, at this hour when I am preparing to return to that God from whom I came."
Or this passage from the Réponse à Christophe de Beaumont, which seems pure Tolstoy:
"I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. My Master has told me that he who loves his brother accomplishes the law."
Or again:
"The whole of the Lord's Prayer is expressed in these words: 'Thy Will be done!'" (Troisième lettre de la Montague.)
Compare with:
"I am replacing all my prayers with the Pater Nosier. All the requests I can make of God are expressed with greater moral elevation by these words: 'Thy Will be done!'" (Tolstoy's Journal, in the Caucasus, 1852-3.)
The similarity of thought is no less striking in the province of art: