Tolstoy spent the last 15 years of his life collecting “a wise thought for every day of the year, from the greatest philosophers of all times and all people”. The result is the book A Calendar of Wisdom, his last major work, banned in Russia under communism.

1 Jan

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all - Thoreau

It is better to know a little of what is really good and worthwhile than a lot of what is mediocre and unnecessary - Tolstoy

2 Jan

There is only one task for every religion - to answer the question: why do I exist and what is my relationship to the infinite world around me? There is not a single religion which is not based on the establishment of man's relationship with the world around him - Tolstoy

3 Jan

Human work must be done honorably and thoroughly, because we are now Men; whether we ever expect to become angels, or were ever slugs, being practically no matter. We are now human creatures, and must, at our peril, do Human, affectionate, honest, and earnest work - Ruskin

4 Jan

The construction of this world in which we find ourselves is such that 1000 men working together can produce many times more than the same 1000 men working on their own. But this does not make it necessary that the 999 must be the virtual slaves of the one - Henry George

5 Jan

A gunshot wound can be healed. But a wound that has arisen from something that has been said can never heal - Persian proverb

Be wary of breaking up the unity of people by saying things which turn them one against the other - Tolstoy

6 Jan

If, when weighed down by unpleasant tasks, you feel an onrush of anger or irritation, withdraw into yourself and stay calm. The more we can practice engaging our willpower to return to a calm state of mind, the greater will be our ability to stay calm - Marcus Aurelius

7 Jan

Do not despise anyone, refrain from any uncharitable judgments of others which you may feel in your heart and from any unkind suspicions regarding your neighbour, and always put the best interpretation on other people's words and actions - Pious Thoughts

8 Jan

The Buddha said that the man who is beginning to live for the sake of his soul is like the man who takes a light into a dark house; the darkness immediately dissolves. All you need to do is to persist in this way of life and you will become completely enlightened - Tolstoy

9 Jan

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know. I do not get nearer to any natural object so long as I presume I have an introduction to it from some learned man. To conceive of it I must for the thousandth time approach it as something strange - Thoreau

10 Jan

The entire object to true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but to enjoy the right tings - not merely industrious, but to love industry - not merely learned, but to love knowledge - not merely just, but to thirst after justice - John Ruskin

11 Jan

Try always to eliminate in yourself any wish to dominate others, do not seek glory or praise - this can all lead to the ruin of your soul. Do not allow yourself to think that you possess particular virtues that are lacking in others - Pious Thoughts

12 Jan

A man may make use of any tradition handed down to him from the wise and saintly men of the past, but he himself must use his reason to verify everything that is handed down, and to be ready to accept one thing, but reject another - Tolstoy

13 Jan

Who is a good person? A good person is only someone who has faith. But what is faith? Faith is when one's will is in harmony with one's conscience, and with universal reason - Chinese Buddhism

14 Jan

If a man cannot forgive his brother, he does not love him. True love is limitless, and there is no end to the number of insults which love, if it is genuine, cannot forgive - Tolstoy

15 Jan

You should fear, above all, anything that stands between you and God - the spirit that dwells within you - Tolstoy

16 Jan

We should be prepared to change our minds, to renounce our old views and adopt new ones. We should cast prejudice aside and argue with an open mind. A sailor who raises the same sail, regardless of changes in the direction of the wind, will never reach his port - George

17 Jan

People can be free in their external lives only to the extent that they have already been freed in their inner lives - Herzen

If you are able to teach someone to behave in an upright way and yet do not do so, you will lose a brother - Chinese Wisdom

18 Jan

A scholar is someone who acquires great knowledge from the books he has read. An educated person is someone who has mastered the most widespread current knowledge and scientific methods. An enlightened person is someone who understands the meaning of his life - Tolstoy

19 Jan

All attempts to improve one's life are fruitless without the idea of sacrifice. Such attempts merely make any improvement impossible - Tolstoy

The life of society can only be improved by the self-denial of the individual - Tolstoy

20 Jan

When you wonder what will happen to your soul after death, you have to think about what it was doing before you were born. If you are going somewhere, then you came from somewhere. If your life continues after death, you must have been alive before you were born - Tolstoy

21 Jan

Neither let mistakes and wrong directions - of which every man, in his studies and elsewhere, falls into many - discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding that we are wrong - Carlyle

22 Jan

There are no circumstances under which murder cannot be the clearest and most primitive violation of God's law, as reflected in all religious teachings and in people's conscience - Tolstoy

23 Jan

The person whose anger knows no limits, the person whose anger twines around him like ivy, will shortly find himself in a position in which only his most inveterate enemy would place him - Buddhist saying

24 Jan

If a person seeks wisdom, he is clever, but if he thinks he has found it, then he is mad - Persian proverb

Wheresoever the search after truth begins, there life begins; wheresoever that search ceases, there life ceases - Ruskin

25 Jan

Turn your gaze away from the world of lies and deceit, and do not trust your feelings: they lie. You should look rather for what is eternal in yourself, in the impersonal you - Buddhist proverb

26 Jan

A rich man has a house of fifteen rooms for three people, but he is unable to welcome a beggar into his house to warm himself and spend the night. A peasant has a tiny hut with a single room for seven people, but he willingly welcomes a stranger into his hut - Tolstoy

27 Jan

Never regret the past. What's the point of such regret? You are told, falsely, that you must repent; the truth tells you to love. Do not dwell on the past; live in the light of love, and let everything else go by - Persian Wisdom

28 Jan

What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time - the eternal laws - Thoreau

29 Jan

If you want to find out more about yourself, look at other people and their actions. If you want to find out more about other people, look into your own heart - Schiller

30 Jan

When Socrates was asked about his place of birth he said he was a citizen of the entire world; he considered himself an inhabitant and a citizen of the entire universe - Cicero

31 Jan

The existence of ignorance depends to a significant degree on the fact that there are cruel people who, having themselves become enlightened, use their knowledge not to help others to emerge from the fog of ignorance, but simply to ensure that they remain there - Tolstoy

1 Feb

Let them think that the world was created as a result of a series of coincidences. I can see a unity of purpose which impels me to believe in a single first principle. If I were told that The Illiad consists of letters thrown onto the page I could not believe it - Rousseau

2 Feb

Life without awareness of death, and life with awareness that with each passing hour death is coming closer - these are two totally different states - Tolstoy

3 Feb

As far as the soul is concerned, kindness and goodness are just the same as health is for the body: when they exist we do not notice them - Tolstoy

4 Feb

We are not free and are reliant on our passions and on other people only in so far as we reject the demands of our reason. We can only achieve real freedom through our reason - Tolstoy

5 Feb

People don't change because their houses have been whitewashed. They won't become better people because they have more access to pleasures and material comforts. The soul creates its own body. Only thoughts can create a sufficiently worthy place for us to live - Mazzini

6 Feb

If you are in the grip of carnal passions and overwhelmed by them, you will become entwined in the creeping bindweed of suffering. But if you are able to conquer such lusts, then all suffering will fall away from you like raindrops from a lotus leaf - Buddhist wisdom

7 Feb

How strange! People will fight against an evil which comes from outside them, from other people - something which is not in their power to eliminate - but they do not fight against the evil that is inside them, although that is always in their power to do - Marcus Aurelius

8 Feb

Why do people love criticizing others so much? Because each of us, when criticizing someone else for something, imagines that we would never be capable of doing something like it ourselves. This is why people love hearing criticism of those who are close to them - Tolstoy

9 Feb

The very best weapon is the weapon that has not been blessed. That is because a rational man does not rely upon it. He values peace and calmness of mind above all else. He is the victor, but not because of his weapon - Lao-tzu

10 Feb

To be strong you need to be like water. If there is no barrier water flows; if there is a dam it stops; in a square vessel it becomes square; in a round vessel it becomes round. It is because it is so adaptable that water is stronger than anything else - Lao-tzu

11 Feb

Doing one's duty has nothing in common with personal enjoyment. Duty has its own particular laws, its own judgement court, and should we wish to combine duty with personal enjoyment in our lives, then they will of their own accord immediately go their separate ways - Kant

12 Feb

There is nothing more certain than the fact that death awaits every one of us. Yet we all live as if it will never happen - Tolstoy

13 Feb

Religion can cast light upon the reasoning of philosophers. The reasoning of philosophers can be substantiated by religious truths. Because of that, you should seek contact with truly religious people as well as with genuine philosophers, both living and dead - Tolstoy

14 Feb

Just as you are not able to see someone's soul, so you are not able to see God; but you will know him in his deeds. And so you cannot help but acknowledge the divine power of the soul, as it manifests itself in its eternal striving after perfection - Seneca

15 Feb

The majority of life's problems can be solved as if they were algebraic equations: by reducing them to their simplest form - Tolstoy

The greatest truths are always the simplest - Tolstoy

16 Feb

Remember that it is not you that is mortal, it is your body; and that it is not your body that is alive, but the spirit in it. And just as the spirit is an invisible force which controls your body, so it must be the same invisible force which controls the world - Cicero

17 Feb

All people on earth have an equal right to make use of the world's natural blessings and an equal right to be respected - Tolstoy

18 Feb

You need only to think about yourself while you are in the middle of saying something for you to lose the thread of your thoughts. It is only when we come out of ourselves that we can serve and influence other people and fruitfully communicate with them - Tolstoy

19 Feb

One of the purest and most undoubted joys of life is to rest after hard work - Kant

Work constantly, without considering it to be a misfortune, and never expect to be praised for it - Kant

Even the most outstanding of talents can be ruined by idleness - Montaigne

20 Feb

If we ever think we have to stop at the understanding of faith we have reached at the moment, we are much mistaken... The light which we have gained was given us, not to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more remote from our knowledge - John Milton

21 Feb

We are wrong when we think that our behavior towards animals lacks any moral significance, or that we have no obligations in so far as animals are concerned. Such an attitude demonstrates disgraceful coarseness and barbarity - Schopenhauer

22 Feb

Everything that is said, and that can be said, about God is never enough to satisfy us. We all need to have an understanding of God which cannot be expressed in words; this alone gives us life - Angelus Silesius

23 Feb

People are rational beings. Why then, in their social lives, do they allow themselves to be governed by violence rather than by reason? - Tolstoy

24 Feb

The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly; only the lover's words are heard - Thoreau

We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that we frequently become disguised to ourselves - La Rochefoucauld

25 Feb

Before starting to pray, test yourself to see if you are able to concentrate your thoughts; otherwise do not pray. The person for whom praying becomes simply a habit is not sincere - The Talmud

26 Feb

After a long conversation, try to remember everything that you have said, and you will be astonished how much of what you have said (sometimes, indeed, all you have said) has been empty, unnecessary and often wrong - Tolstoy

27 Feb

Rich philanthropists are unable to see that what they have deigned to give to the poor they have often grabbed from the hands of someone who is even poorer - Tolstoy

28 Feb

Art is one of those means by which people can become united - Tolstoy

29 Feb

The ideal exists within you. Any barrier to its fulfillment is in you. This ideal has to be fashioned from the raw material of the position you are in at present - Tolstoy

1 Mar

Death is the final and biggest change to our body. Our life is not in the changes to our body, but in what is living within it. And what is living within it is a spiritual being, and for the spiritual being there is no beginning or end because time does not exist - Tolstoy

2 Mar

What strength there is in those who always act according to the will of God and who submit to him in everything! - Marcus Aurelius

3 Mar

The one who performs a good deed for someone else will, more than anything do a good deed for himself - not in the sense that he will be rewarded for it, but in the sense that the awareness of what he has done will bring him great joy - Seneca

4 Mar

Gluttony is the most common vice. We take so little notice of it only because practically everyone indulges in it - Tolstoy

5 Mar

If you want other people to praise you then you should stop praising yourself - Pascal

6 Mar

People say "I don't understand what it means to love God". If someone can't understand what it means to love art, how can one explain it unless he knows what art is? How can one explain what it means to love God if he does not know what God is and is proud of it? - Tolstoy

7 Mar

All manual work ennobles people. Not to teach one's son manual labor is the same as preparing him to become a thief - The Talmud

8 Mar

It is good to pray at set times. But if you are unable to gather your thoughts, it's better not to pray at all. Do not just repeat words with your tongue alone - Tolstoy

9 Mar

War and Christianity are incompatible - Tolstoy

10 Mar

Everything alive is frightened of suffering and is afraid of death. Everything living desires the same as you do and values its life; therefore you must see yourself in every living creature - Buddhist saying

11 Mar

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the last parting? - George Eliot

12 Mar

When you emerged into this world you cried, while everyone else was overjoyed. Try to see to it that, when you leave this world, everyone cries, while you alone smile - Indian saying

13 Mar

The man who has nothing to lose is a very rich man - Chinese proverb

Wisdom is infinite: the closer you approach it the more necessary it becomes - Tolstoy

14 Mar

Is it love which brings all people together as one; this unity is confirmed by reason, common to us all - Tolstoy

15 Mar

The most perfect person is the one who loves all those close to him and who does good to them without distinguishing whether they are good or bad - Mohammed

16 Mar

The best and most essential proof that we posses an intellect and real understanding lies in our ability to ask the right questions - Kant

17 Mar

There is only one factor which can prevent the world from falling into evil ways: the dissemination of true faith among everyone - Tolstoy

18 Mar

So long as you remember your own failings and try to correct them, it will never occur to you to criticize other people - and, besides, you won't have the time to do this - Tolstoy

19 Mar

A stone falls on a jug - woe to the jug. A jug falls on a stone - woe to the jug. One way or another, the jug always loses - The Talmud

20 Mar

We need to behave as if everyone can see into our souls and know what is taking place there - Seneca

21 Mar

Life is neither an imposition nor a pleasure, but a task which we are obliged to fulfill and to carry out to the very end with honor - Tocqueville

22 Mar

The truth may not tell us at all times what we should do, but it will always tell us what we should not do, or what we should stop doing - Tolstoy

23 Mar

To drop a man in the Atlantic Ocean and tell him he is free to walk ashore would not be a more bitter irony than to place a man where all the land is appropriated and to tell him that he is a free man, at liberty to work for himself and to enjoy his own earnings - George

24 Mar

Moses says to God: "Oh, Lord, where are you?" God replies: "Once you begin looking for me, you have already found me." - Tolstoy

25 Mar

It is not enough to say that any help you give to others should be mutual. If you accept help from your brothers, you should pay it back not only with money, but also with respect and with gratitude - Tolstoy

26 Mar

The most important change that takes place in the life of a nation is the change in the way that people believe - Tolstoy

27 Mar

Look for the best people amongst those whom the world condemns - Tolstoy

28 Mar

You are only able to see your own faults through the eyes of other people - Chinese proverb

29 Mar

Passion within someone is at first a spider's web, and then a thick rope. Passion appears at first as a stranger, then as a guest and, finally, as a homeowner - The Talmud

30 Mar

If you notice someone making a mistake, gently point this out and tell him where he has gone wrong. And if he doesn't listen to you, blame only yourself or, even better, don't blame anybody, just carry on being gentle - Marcus Aurelius

31 Mar

The person who covers up his previous bad deeds with good deeds shines in this gloomy world like a young moon in a cloudy sky - Buddhist saying

1 Apr

Do not be afraid of ignorance, but be afraid of false knowledge. All the world's evils derive from it - Tolstoy

2 Apr

Always pay close attention to whatever it is you are doing, and never consider anything unworthy of that attention - Confucius

3 Apr

Nobody knows what death is, whether it is good or bad. Yet everyone fears it, as if they know for sure that it is something bad - Plato

4 Apr

People's attitude towards the pleasures of life is such that they are sorry when they disappear. But the only correct attitude is to be able to enjoy life's pleasures, while at the same time not to feel sorry about their disappearance - Pascal

5 Apr

People live good lives if they are convinced that to work is more valuable than to do nothing, and if, being so convinced, they are able to value and respect other people - Tolstoy

6 Apr

We must thank those people who point out our faults. Such faults do not then disappear because we have so many. Yet as soon as we are told about them they begin to nag at us, giving our conscience no time to breathe, and we try to rid ourselves of them and improve - Pascal

7 Apr

How should one take revenge on one's enemy? By trying to do as much good towards him as possible - Epictetus

8 Apr

People think that if they call the crime of murder "war", then murder ceases to be murder and crime ceases to be crime - Tolstoy

9 Apr

The more spiritual our way of life the more we believe in immortality. The further our nature distances itself from animal coarseness the fewer its doubts become. The veil drops away from the future, the gloom disperses, and we can sense our immortality - Harriet Martineau

10 Apr

The more distant the goal the more necessary it becomes to move forward. Not in haste, but not at our leisure - Mazzini

11 Apr

There are vices in us which are sustained only by the presence of other vices and which disappear when we eliminate the basic vices, just as the branches of a tree fall to the ground when we chop down its trunk - Tolstoy

12 Apr

As I stand over the insect crawling on the forest floor, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor that stands over me, the human insect - Thoreau

13 Apr

Examine everything with great care. Trust only those things that are in agreement with your reason - Tolstoy

14 Apr

If we receive an income without having earned it by working, then somebody else is working without getting any income for it - Maimonides

15 Apr

...it is one of the appointed conditions of the labor of men that... the farther off we place our aim, and the less we desire ourselves to be the witnesses of what we have labored for, the more wide and rich will be the measure of our success - Ruskin

16 Apr

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say "I think", "I am", but quotes some saint or sage - Emerson

17 Apr

Without a clear understanding of the meaning of one's life, without something called faith, a person could at any moment renounce what he has been living for, and begin to live in the name of what he has hitherto condemned as wrong - Tolstoy

18 Apr

It is not how much you know that is important, but what you know. It is possible to know a great many things, but without knowing what you most need to know - Tolstoy

19 Apr

A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts - Emerson

20 Apr

We only truly come alive in ourselves when we live for others. This may seem strange, but just try it for yourself and you will become convinced - Tolstoy

21 Apr

The greatest blessing will only become possible when you refrain from even the slightest wrongdoing - Pascal

22 Apr

People are able to transfer their inner selves from the realm of subservience, inconstancy and adversity, into the realms of freedom, constancy and joy - so that they become aware of their spiritual and divine essence - Tolstoy

23 Apr

Something that is truly good is always simple. Simplicity is so attractive and confers so many blessings that it is astonishing how few simple people there are around - Tolstoy

24 Apr

And it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. May he be doctrine, society, law to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others - Emerson

25 Apr

A person may be aware of himself as a physical and a spiritual being. In his awareness of himself a a physical being he cannot be free. Yet for a spiritual being there can be no question of a lack of freedom - Tolstoy

26 Apr

The concepts that God exists and that he doesn't exists, that the human soul exists and that it doesn't exist, that the world has been created and that it has not been created - all these concepts are equally incomprehensible - Pascal

27 Apr

If you live with someone close to you it is a good thing to agree between yourselves to stop each other as soon as one of you begins to criticize the other - Tolstoy

28 Apr

Should you want to be in a good frame of mind then work until you are tired, but do not overdo it. Inner contentment is always disrupted by idleness and only occasionally by working too hard - Tolstoy

29 Apr

People can fulfill their purpose in life equally well, whether they are sick or healthy - Tolstoy

30 Apr

The true aim of life is to become aware that it is eternal - Tolstoy

1 May

Cowardice is knowing what you should do and then not doing it - Confucius

2 May

In any controversy, the instant we feel angry, we have already ceased striving for Truth, and begun striving for ourselves - Carlyle

3 May

If people study for themselves, that is useful for them. But when they do it for other people in order to appear learned, such activity is not only useless, but harmful - Chinese wisdom

4 May

Every thought, once expressed in words, is a force whose effects are unlimited - Tolstoy

5 May

Always behave justly, particularly where children are concerned. Always do what you have promised them you will do, otherwise you will accustom them to lies - The Talmud

6 May

Human beings are higher than other animals not because they can heartlessly torture them, but because they can take pity on them - Buddhist wisdom

7 May

People are mistaken if they hope to find blessing outside themselves, whether in this life or in the life to come - Tolstoy

8 May

Once a sage was told that he was considered to be a bad man. He replied: "It's a good thing they don't know everything about me, otherwise they would have criticized me even more." - Tolstoy

9 May

So long as you are alive you should learn. Don't wait for old age to confer wisdom on you - Solon

10 May

It is our sense of duty that compels us to be aware of the reality of the material world and to participate in its life; yet at the same time it alienates us from this world and shows us its non-reality - Amiel

11 May

We are so far from perfection that, however varied the lives we lead, we all remain equally distant from it - Tolstoy

12 May

We are racing unthinkingly towards a precipice, holding a shield in front of us to prevent us from seeing it - Pascal

Live as if at any moment you must leave this life, as if the time that has been gifted to you is an unexpected present - Marcus Aurelius

13 May

A political victory, a rise of rents, the recovery of your sick, the return home of your absent friend, or some other favorable event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself - Emerson

14 May

I laugh to myself about those people who think that they can ham me: they don't know either who I am, nor what I consider to be good or evil; neither do they know that they cannot possibly have any effect on what is really mine and by which alone I live - Epictetus

15 May

The most common and widespread cause of lying is the desire to deceive oneself, not other people. It is this form of lying which is the most harmful - Tolstoy

16 May

The genuinely religious person ignores the past; guided only by that which has to be, such people are often wrongly thought of as atheists - Tolstoy

17 May

If you are a generally unrecognized and misunderstood figure and are not saddened by this then you are a truly virtuous person - Chinese wisdom

18 May

It cannot be said that an awareness of the divine nature of your soul gives you power. Such awareness raises you into a particular realm where there is no concept of strength or weakness - or, consequently, of power - Tolstoy

19 May

A wise man once asked whether there was one word which might carry him through his life for the good of his soul. The wise man replied: "Yes, there is, and that is shu, whose meaning is: do not do to others whatever it is you would not wish done to you - Chinese wisdom

20 May

Evil does not exist in nature. But it exists for each of us who has been given the awareness of good and evil and the freedom to choose between the two - Marcus Aurelius

21 May

The very best way to begin each new day would be as follows: as you wake up, ask yourself whether you might not be able to bring joy to at least one person - Nietzsche

22 May

All true opinions are living, and show their life by being capable of nourishment; therefore of change. But their change is that of a tree, not of a cloud - Ruskin

23 May

Who is wise? Those who learn something from everybody else.
Who is strong? Those who act in a restrained way.
Who is rich? Those who are content with their lot.

—The Talmud

24 May

The wise man said: "My message is simple, and its meaning is easy to grasp. All one needs to do is to love one's neighbor as oneself."

—Chinese Wisdom

25 May

Noticing other people's faults arises from dissatisfaction with ourselves. Often, in criticizing our neighbor, we fall into making the same error for which we have just criticized someone else.

—Pious Thoughts

26 May

When we move from one scene on the stage to the next, it becomes clear that what we thought was real was simply make-believe. In just the same way it will become clear to a dying person exactly which things have been real and which merely stage scenery.

—Tolstoy

27 May

The sole aim of a court of justice is the preservation of the existing order of society, and, in order to achieve this, it tries and punishes both those who are higher than the general level of society and who wish to raise it, as well as those who stand lower.

—Tolstoy

28 May

Poverty teaches us wisdom and patience. After all Lazarus lived in poverty and yet was crowned with glory; Jacob desired for nothing other than bread, and Joseph lived in extreme poverty, and yet, because of this, we are all the more astonished by him

—St John Chrysostom

29 May

The only self-evident certainty is the fact of our conscious awareness.

—Descartes

30 May

In life, people strive not in order to do what they consider to be good, but so that they can call as many things as possible their own.

—Tolstoy

31 May

In order to be happy, one needs to believe in the possibility of happiness.

—Tolstoy

1 Jun

It is better to do nothing than to do something harmful.

—Tolstoy

2 Jun

A man and a woman are two different notes, without which the strings of the human soul would not give out a correct, harmonious sound.

—Mazzini

3 Jun

Rational human beings who have been summoned to work together for one and the same purpose perform the same function in the world as a whole as the limbs in the human body. People have been created for the purpose of mutual cooperation.

—Marcus Aurelius

4 Jun

The more we treat objects, customs and laws with respect, the more carefully we need to examine them to see if they are worthy of such respect.

—Tolstoy

5 Jun

The way we see and perceive the external world is only meaningful for us. To say that this world is actually as we perceive it is like saying that human beings with a different view of the world from us cannot exist.

—Tolstoy

6 Jun

To do something evil is just as dangerous as to provoke a wild beast. Evil will generally come back, in the crudest form, to the one who has committed it.

—Tolstoy

7 Jun

Peace between people is a necessary condition of a good life. Yet the main obstacle to peace is our pride. It is only through humility and the readiness to be humiliated, slandered, and falsely understood that we can ensure peaceful relations with other people.

—Tolstoy

8 Jun

Without truth there cannot be good; and, without good, the truth cannot be imparted to other people.

—Tolstoy

9 Jun

There was, is and always will be just one thing on which to base the whole of life: that is loving communion with people and the elimination of all barriers which people have erected between themselves.

—Tolstoy

10 Jun

The person who knows other people is clever; the person who knows himself is enlightened.
The person who conquers others is strong; the person who conquers himself is mighty.
And the person who, when dying, knows that he can never be destroyed will live forever.

—Lao-tzu

11 Jun

We are sorry when we lose a purse full of money, but we forget about a good thought which has occurred to us or which we have heard or read. We forget about this and do not regret something that is more valuable than millions.

—Tolstoy

12 Jun

Suffering is a necessary part of growth, both physical and spiritual.

—Tolstoy

13 Jun

The Buddha said: "In my thoughts, in life, in talking to people, in my studies, I never forget the most important thing - the requirements of reason."

—Tolstoy

14 Jun

Do not condemn other people's behavior. In doing so, we only make ourselves unnecessarily anxious and fall into considerable error. Look carefully into yourself, and your labors will not go unrewarded.

—Pious Thoughts

15 Jun

Those who say that they love God but do not love their neighbor are deceiving other people.
But those who say that they love their neighbor but do not love God are deceiving themselves.

—Tolstoy

16 Jun

It is only when people morally improve themselves that the structure of social life can be enhanced.

—Tolstoy

17 Jun

The calamities arising as a result of war not only do not correspond to the causes put forward as justification, but these causes are for the most part so trivial that they are not worth discussing and are completely unknown to those people on the battlefield.

—Tolstoy

18 Jun

We have within our souls something that, if we examine it, we will always look upon with the greatest astonishment (and whenever astonishment is legitimate it uplifts our soul) - this something is the tendency towards moral behavior that is lodged within each of us

—Kant

19 Jun

People talk about the traditions handed down by moral teachings or by religion, as if they were two separate guides for people to live their lives. But there is only one guide - our conscience, because only it can accept or reject moral and religious teaching.

—Tolstoy

20 Jun

If you see children taking pleasure in tormenting a kitten you will stop them and induce in them a sense of compassion for living creatures. But when you indulge in hunting, or shooting pigeons, you do exactly the same thing you have told children not to do.

—Tolstoy

21 Jun

We can acquire wisdom in three ways:

- Through meditation, the noblest way
- Through imitation, the easiest way
- Through experience, the hardest way

—Confucius

22 Jun

Do not be afraid of uncertainty and doubt; use your reason to examine fearlessly the claims of faith that you are being offered.

—Tolstoy

23 Jun

Remember that to change your opinion and to do everything to correct your mistake is closer to freedom than to persist in your mistake.

—Marcus Aurelius

24 Jun

Whenever you are trying to answer the question of whether you should do one thing or another, ask yourself what you would do if you knew that you were going to die that evening, and nobody would ever find out what it was you decided to do.

—Tolstoy

25 Jun

The same mistakes which in other people seem glaring and intolerable appear unimportant in ourselves; we are barely aware of them.

Nothing would cure us more quickly of our faults than if we were able to see ourselves in other people.

—La Bruyère

26 Jun

Love shows people the aim of their lives; reason shows them how to realize it.

—Tolstoy

27 Jun

Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it will be opened.

—Matthew 7:7-8

28 Jun

There is nothing either good or bad in love for one's family, just as in love for oneself; both are quite natural phenomena.
Love for one's family can be a vice if it transcends certain limits, but it can never be a virtue.

—Tolstoy

29 Jun

It seems to me that the first rule by which we ought to live is to be happy and contented.

If we feel there's something wrong within us, we should not complain about it, but to try to put right whatever it is that is affecting us as quickly as possible.

—Tolstoy

30 Jun

It is not easy to distinguish the voice of truth in the midst of all the noise made by groups of excited people.

—Schiller

1 Jul

Life has been given to us as a baby is given to its nanny so that it can develop and grow. This is what the parable of the talents is telling us (Matthew 25:14-30).

—Tolstoy

2 Jul

We can only be totally satisfied with the impression made on us by a work of art when, despite all our intellectual efforts, there is something about it that remains beyond our full comprehension.

—Schopenhauer

3 Jul

If you consider that you are not free look for the reason within yourself.

—Tolstoy

4 Jul

Punishments are never based on reason or on a sense of justice, but simply on the desire to avenge somebody who has wronged you or another person.

—Tolstoy