Biographile’s This Week in History remembers events of the past, and the icons that set them in motion. If you're stirred by the words below, read on for more inspiring author quotes.

This week in history -- on September 9, 1828 -- marks Leo Tolstoy's 186th birthday. Though we're quick to label the Russian luminary a "writer," he was above all else a profound thinker and feeler of the human experience. While others write as a form of escapism, Tolstoy wrote to channel and explain the troubles of the world, best shown through his realistic epics War and Peace (1865-1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), or his highly underappreciated The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886). He was firmly a part of this world, his work reflecting staunch political and societal beliefs as much as his elegant gift for writing.

Through his experiences and his passions, he constantly strove to bridge the gap between the human spirit and the natural world. Writing helped, but it certainly wasn't the only means by which he achieved these goals. While the presence of Tolstoy in an English 101 class should warrant no double-takes, Tolstoyan newbies might bat an eye at his other influences.

Take a trip over to Vegetarianism 101, for instance, and you might find his name crop up. Following a revelation in 1885, Tolstoy became a steadfast vegetarian. One particularly amusing story has it that when his aunt -- who lived with Tolstoy at the time -- requested chicken for dinner, she was greeted at the dinner table with a live chicken tied to her chair and a butcher's knife resting nearby.

You may also find him in India's history textbooks. Tolstoy became something of an extreme pacifist later in life (among other, anarchic beliefs) and penned "A Letter to a Hindu" in 1908, which essentially argued that the only path towards Indian independence from Britain is through nonviolent means. Mahatma Gandhi, then in the early throes of tackling the problem of British imperialism, was moved by Tolstoy's words and he wrote to the aging Russian author asking if he could reprint his letter in Gandhi's Indian Opinion. The rest is history.

For more on Tolstoy's life, look to his very capable biographer, Rosamund Bartlett, and her comprehensive profile Tolstoy: A Russian Life. In the meantime, let's pause and appreciate some of the pithier words of wisdom from Tolstoy's great oeuvre. Over a century has passed, and his words still resound with relevance today.

1. "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." (As quoted in The Artist's Way at Work : Riding the Dragon, 1999, by Mark A. Bryan with Julia Cameron and Catherine A. Allen, p. 160)

2. "The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience." (Bk. X, ch. 16, War and Peace, 1865–1869)

3. "All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Pt. I, ch. 1, Anna Karenina)

4. "Honest work is much better than a mansion." (p. 82, Path of Life, 1909)

5. "The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth." (Sevastopol in May, 1855, Ch. 16)

6. "The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people." (What Is To Be Done?, 1886, Chap. XL, as translated in The Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoy, 1902, edited by Nathan Haskell Dole, p. 281)

7. "In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." (Christianity and Patriotism, 1895, as translated in The Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoï, Vol. 20, p. 44)

8. "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere." (As quoted in Tolstoy, 1988, by A. N. Wilson, p. 146)

9. "Pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy." (Bk. XV, ch. 1 War and Peace, 1865–1869)