'Saturday 13th October 1928. After dinner went with Mme. and George to Romainville to hear Georges Pioch on Tolsto?. [...] Queerly enough, though Pioch himself is a Tolstoyan and though his speech showed the bias, it seemed to strengthen the instinctive dislike, which I feel for Tolstoy the man. I can admire and be troubled by his theories. I can find his works wonderful, and yet I dislike Tolstoy. His personal arrogance, his obvious sense of superiority to all the individuals with whom he comes in contact does not square with his humility in face of that which are abstractions ? the People. Again, he is too much the propagandist. He squares the circle too perfectly. He seems drunk with logic in his propagandist books. These things always make me suspicious. I do not believe that life can be simplified like that, that it can be governed by half a dozen rules of conduct. I believe that life is essentially a thing of endless complication, endless contradiction, a machinery of compromises, a picture composed of endlessly varied halftones. It is probable that I do not properly appreciate the Tolstoyan argument, but so far as my comprehension permits and my own knowledge, I am no Tolstoyan.'