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The Art of Living for All: “A Calendar of Wisdom” by Leo Tolstoy (Book Summary)

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I thoroughly enjoyed Leo Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts (Amazon).

The book is meant to be read one day at a time for the 365 days of the calendar year. Each day is loosely organized around a theme (although the theme is not explicitly stated).

To take the book a step further, I organized my favorite 250 quotes from the book into roughly 25 themes here.

And, going even deeper, I distilled those themes further in a premium companion post. This is one of those books where I highly recommend pairing this free summary with the Premium post:

🔒 How to Live a Wise Life with “A Calendar of Wisdom” by Leo Tolstoy (+ Infographic)

Enjoy!

Quick Housekeeping:

  • All quotes are from Leo Tolstoy unless otherwise stated (quotes without an author shown are from Tolstoy).
  • I’ve organized my favorite quotes into my own themes (vs Tolstoy’s original calendars days).
  • I’ve emphasized portions of quotes in bold text.
  • Due to the amount of content, I’ve limited it to 10 top quotes per theme. Each theme starts with quotes from Tolstoy followed by quotes from others.

Book Summary Contents: Click a link here to jump to a section below

Sloww A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy

The Art of Living for All: “A Calendar of Wisdom” by Leo Tolstoy (Book Summary)

Short Overview of “A Calendar of Wisdom”

“The purpose of my book is not to give exact, word-for-word translations of thoughts created by other authors, but to use the great and fruitful intellectual heritage created by different writers to present for a wide reading audience an easily accessible, everyday circle of reading which will arouse their best thoughts and feelings.” — Leo Tolstoy

The introduction is by Peter Sekirin—who translated Tolstoy’s work from the original Russian. This book was Tolstoy’s last major work, in progress for 15 years before his death.

Various names for the book have included: The Way of Life; Circle of Reading; A Wise Thought for Every Day; Wise Thoughts by Many Writers on Truth, Life, and Behavior Collected and Arranged for Every Day of the Year.

Peter Sekirin says:

  • “Tolstoy’s original goal was the delivery of wisdom to the widest possible number of people, ‘to entertain millions of readers.’ This aim remains as compelling now, in this time of increasing spiritual need, as it was then.“
  • “Tolstoy combined simplicity of form and philosophical depth.”
  • “Tolstoy added about eight hundred of his own thoughts, written during his many years of meditation, or taken from previous diary entries. He generally started each day with an opening thought of his own, added quotes by other sources, and finished each day with a closing thought of his own.”

The book covers major topics like:

  • God, Intellect, Law, Love, Divine Nature of Mankind, Faith, Temptations, Word, Self-Sacrifice, Eternity, Good, Kindness, Unification of People (with God), Prayer, Freedom, Perfection, Work, and more

In Tolstoy’s own words:

  • “I cannot understand how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on Earth?“
  • “I became more and more astonished by the ignorance, and especially by the cultural, moral ignorance of our society … All our education should be directed to the accumulation of the cultural heritage of our ancestors, the best thinkers of the world.”
  • “To create a book for the masses … is incomparably more important and fruitful than to compose a novel of the kind which diverts some members of the wealthy classes for a short time, and then is forever forgotten. The region of this art of the simplest, most widely accessible feeling is enormous, and it is as yet almost untouched.”
  • “I have to create a circle of reading for myself: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Pascal, The New Testament. This is also necessary for all people.” (March 15, 1984)
  • “I felt that I have been elevated to great spiritual and moral heights by communication with the best and wisest people whose books I read and whose thoughts I selected for my Circle of Reading.”
  • “I know that it gives one great inner force, calmness, and happiness to communicate with such great thinkers … They tell us about what is most important for humanity, about the meaning of life and about virtue … I would like to create a book … in which I could tell a person about his life, and about the Good Way of Life.”

God / Divine Spark / Spirit / Force / Guide

“What is ‘love of God,’ if it is not the effort to add part of yourself to the higher creative flow of energy in this world? Divine force exists in everything, but the greatest manifestation of it in this world is in humanity, and in order to put it to work, one must understand it and accept it.”

  • “The foundation of love is in each person’s understanding of the unity of the divine spark which lives in all people.”
  • “The understanding of one’s unity with all of humanity comes from the understanding of the divine beginning in us all, and gives all our greatest good.”
  • “God exists only for those who look for Him. Start looking: you will find Him in you and yourself in Him.”
  • “At a certain level of self-awareness, a person understands something supernatural in himself.”
  • “The more we understand our divine nature, the more its rules should be fulfilled in our actions.”
  • “Understanding our duty provides us with the understanding of our divine soul. And, too, the understanding of our divine soul gives us the understanding of duty.“
  • “Remember that you are not mortal; only your body is mortal. What is alive is not your body but the spirit living in your body. An unseen force guides your body, just as an unseen force guides the world.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • “Heaven is closer to those people who purify their souls. Those who have only the knowledge received by our five senses do not know the essence of things. The real knowledge is the understanding that there is a higher spiritual force.” — Indian wisdom
  • “The divine spark lives in all of us, and perpetually strives toward its origin.” — Lucius Anneaus Seneca
  • “He who understands his soul will understand the divine spark within himself.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Will of God / Fate

“Life in this world goes according to somebody’s will—someone performs special actions upon all life in this world, and touches all our lives. That which performs these actions is what we call God.“

  • “A person’s life is good only to the extent that it fulfills the expectations of the will of God.”
  • “Look for a kind life which is in harmony with the will of God, and then you will fulfill the duty of your life.”
  • “The burden, the cross, which every man has to carry exists on two planes: a longer vertical plane, which is the will of God; and a much shorter, horizontal plane, which is a man’s own will. If you orient your will so that it parallels the direction of God’s will, then you will have no cross to carry, no burden.”
  • “Nothing can enlighten people’s lives and ease their burdens more than the understanding that they should serve God.“
  • “Everything is in heaven’s power, except for our choice of whether to serve God or ourselves.”
  • “Real happiness can be built only by harmonizing your life with the will of God.” — Lucy Malory
  • “When you carry your burden, you should know that it is good for you to have it. Make the best of this burden and take from it everything which is necessary for your intellectual life, as your stomach takes from food everything necessary for your flesh, or as fire burns brighter after you put some wood on it.” — Marcus Aurelius
  • “You should welcome everything which happens to you from birth to death, because the existence and the purpose of the world is in these cases.” — Marcus Aurelius
  • “People who try to force circumstances become their slaves. Those who use them become their masters.” — The Talmud

Eternal Laws

“There is only one real law, the law of God, which is the same for all of mankind. Human law can be valid only when it is in harmony with the law of God.“

  • “The deeds of a person become his life, become his fate. This is the law of our life.”
  • “There is only one law, both in your personal and social life: if you want to improve your soul, you should be ready to sacrifice it.”
  • “When one understands life’s law, one manifests the part of God which lives inside him.“
  • “All true wisdom and all true faith are clearly expressed in the same moral law.”
  • “We live a short period of time in this world, but we live it according to the laws of eternal life.” — Henry David Thoreau
  • “Your will is not good until you have changed the habits of your intellect, and they will improve only when they follow the eternal laws of life.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
  • “We fulfill the law of God when we feel the lives of others as our own life.” — Giuseppe Mazzini
  • “Christ never founded any church, never created any state, never passed any law, never established any government or other authority. He wanted to put the law of God into the hearts of people, to make them self-governed.” — Herbert Newton
  • “All our history proves that God may be understood, not by reasoning, but by submission to Him and obeyance to His laws. Only by doing this can we understand His will on earth.” — John Ruskin

Unification / Harmony

“Love brings people to unification. The universal intellect, which is the same for everyone, supports this unification.”

  • “All that brings unification to people is goodness and beauty; all that brings separation among them is evil. All people know this: it is firmly inscribed on our hearts.“
  • “It only seems as if we differ from each other. A flower on a blossoming tree can think that it is a separate being, but all flowers are parts of the same blossoming of one apple tree, and they all come from one seed.”
  • “We should teach our children those principles that are common to all religions—Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and so on, that is, for the moral science of love and the unification of all people.”
  • “Family and motherland are but two circles that are part of the wider circle that is humanity.“
  • “Nature created us related to each other, from the same material, for the same purpose. Because of this, somewhere within all of us is mutual love for each other.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
  • “All people are members of this one body; in order to be happy, they should live in harmony with the will that governs its life. We should live in harmony with this great soul and love it more than we love ourselves.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “Humanity has begun to understand that we will all rise or fall together—that we are bound together, as we live together. People are listening more and more to the voice which speaks this inside of us.” — Lucy Malory
  • “The door to heaven is opened to you to the same extent you want it. Get rid of your troubles and problems, and direct your soul to spiritual things. Be attentive, and fulfill your duty without thinking about the consequences. You should not guide events, but be guided by events.” — Indian wisdom
  • “Every person has within himself the capability to understand the life of all humanity. This capability is hidden deep in the soul, but it exists, and sooner or later, a person will find it.” — Edward Carpenter

Meaning of Life

“Just imagine that the purpose of your life is your happiness only—then life becomes a cruel and senseless thing. You have to embrace what the wisdom of humanity, your intellect, and your heart tell you: that the meaning of life is to serve the force that sent you into the world. Then life becomes a constant joy.”

  • “Grow spiritually and help others to do so; it is the meaning of life.”
  • “The meaning of life lies in two major areas: your personal perfection and service to other people. You can serve while you are moving toward perfection, and you can move toward perfection by serving people.”
  • “The real meaning of life is not possible to embrace, if you are looking for the universal meaning of life. And at the same time it is so simple that it can be explained to fools and to infants when what to know is what you should do as an individual.”
  • “A person cannot have complete understanding of the meaning of life. A person can only know its direction.“
  • “The meaning of life is revealed to those who are ready to accept the things which will be revealed. And it is he who has already decided that he will accept the truth as it is, and not the truth itself, which will change the way of life he has been accustomed to.”
  • “Salvation lies not in rituals and not in a particular creed, but in a clear understanding of the meaning of your life.”
  • “Without the clear understanding of the meaning of one’s life, without faith, a person can at any minute deny good and start worshiping evil.”
  • “There are a limitless number of different sciences, but without one basic science, that is, what is the meaning of life and what is good for the people, all other forms of knowledge and art become idle and harmful entertainment.”
  • “We live a senseless life, contrary to the understanding of life by the wisest people of all times. This happens because our young generations are educated in the wrong way—they are taught different sciences but they are not taught the meaning of life.”

Purpose

“A scholar knows many books; a well-educated person has knowledge and skills; an enlightened person understands the meaning and purpose of his life.”

  • “Our soul’s perfection is our life’s purpose; any other purpose, keeping death in mind, has no substance.”
  • “All people have the same origin, are bound by the same law, and were created for the same purpose.”
  • “Every person has only one purpose: to find perfection in goodness. Therefore, only that knowledge is necessary which leads us to this.”
  • “Love provides a person with the purpose of his life. Intellect shows him the means to achieve that purpose.”
  • “Your life may be cut short at any time; therefore, your life should have a deep purpose, a significance that will not depend on whether it is short or long.”
  • “The purpose of your life is not to do as the majority does, but to live according to the inner law which you understand in yourself. Do not act against your conscience or against truth. Live like this, and you will fulfill the task of your life.” — Marcus Aurelius
  • “The kingdom of God on earth is the final purpose and desire of humankind.” — Immanuel Kant
  • “Life has no meaning without purpose. To lack purpose is to deny the existence of God and to admit that our life is an evil, stupid joke.” — Giuseppe Mazzini
  • “Establish your purpose when you are alone and without temptations.” — Jeremy Bentham

Know Thyself / Inner Self

“The greatest knowledge is self-knowledge. He who understands himself will understand God.”

  • “The best and the most important object for every person is his inner self, his spiritual being.”
  • “Remember that your understanding of your inner self holds the meaning of your life, and it makes you free if you do not force it to serve your flesh. The human soul which is enlightened by understanding and freed from passions, and lit with the divine light, stands on a firm foundation.”
  • “If, among the many voices which speak in my soul, I could only recognize my soul’s true voice, then I would never make mistakes, and never do evil. This is why it is necessary to know yourself.”
  • “If you could only know who you are, all your troubles would seem utterly unnecessary and trivial.”
  • “Nothing will bring you peace except yourself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “The better a person knows himself, the smaller and less significant he seems to himself and the higher he elevates himself toward God.” — Thomas A Kempis
  • “In our time, people forget that first of all they should respect the human being in themselves.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “O God, while I stay on this earth I want to be that which I am.” — Epictetus
  • “Be as you are, as you have to be, and the rest is God’s business.” — Henri Amiel 

Serving Humanity

“We live for ourselves only when we live for others. It may seem strange, but try it, and you will see it from your own experience.”

  • “Look at all of your knowledge as a gift, as a means of helping other people.”
  • “For a person who leads a spiritual life, self-sacrifice brings a bliss that far transcends the pleasure of a person who lives by the self-indulgent satisfaction of his animal passions.”
  • “A person should know that he performs true charity not in front of other persons, but before the eternal law of God.”
  • “Man’s purpose is to serve all mankind, not to serve only one man while doing harm to others.”
  • “A strong and wise person uses his gifts to support other people.” — John Ruskin 
  • “Stop robbing others before you give money to beggars. With the same hand that we rob one person, we reward another, giving to the poor the money which we have taken from the even poorer. Better no charity than this kind of charity.” — Saint John Chrysostom 
  • “Life is short. Do not forget about the most important things in our life, living for other people and doing good for them.” — Marcus Aurelius
  • “Real life starts with self-sacrifice.” — Thomas Carlyle
  • “Instead of saving humanity, every person should save himself.” — Alexander Herzen

Society / Civilization / Mankind

“All the misfortunes of mankind collectively and individually are not useless; they bring people and individuals and nations in different ways closer to the purpose which is set before them: the appearance of God, for every person in himself, and in all mankind.”

  • “If a person has problems, there can be only one root cause: lack of faith. The same is true within human societies as a whole.”
  • “Live for your soul, and without trying or even understanding that you’re doing it, you will contribute to the improvement of society.”
  • “The first and most difficult obstruction to the fulfillment of the law of God is the fact that our society’s existing laws are completely opposed to this law.”
  • “It is only faith which creates the powerful convictions, the energy, and the unity which can cure society.” — Giuseppe Mazzini
  • “Civilization is first of all a moral thing. Without truth, respect for duty, love of neighbor, virtue, everything is destroyed. The morality of a society is alone the basis of civilization.” — Henri Amiel
  • “The salvation of mankind depends upon independent thinkers directing their thoughts rightly.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “In those countries where wise people are in power, their subjects do not notice the existence of their rulers.” — Lao-Tzu
  • “People of planet Earth are on a very low level of development. Every day in the newspapers you read the news about military treaties, about the preparations for war, for mass manslaughter. People do not understand that the life of each man is his own personal private property.” — Camille Flammarion

Progress / Movement / Change

“Every single individual person, as well as all mankind together, will change, and will go on to higher stages without stopping in their development, the limit of which is God himself. And this time is coming.” — F. Robert De Lamennais

  • “The history of mankind is the movement of humanity toward greater and greater unification.”
  • “Life is constant movement, and therefore goodness in life is not a certain state, but the direction of movement. This direction is not in serving yourself, but God.”
  • “Humankind goes on without stopping. This movement forward is necessary for you as an individual as well. If you want to serve God, you should be a worker for the spiritual progress of humanity.”
  • “Humanity slowly but ceaselessly moves forward to the better and better understanding of the meaning of this life.”
  • “Life consists of numerous invisible, imperceptible changes, changes that begin at birth and end with death. It is not possible for us humans to observe them all.”
  • “If God wanted to, he could have made us one nation, but he tests us. Wherever you go, in all places, try as much as you can to be kind, to be good, and then the day will come when God will unite all of us.” — The Koran
  • “God gave us the consciousness of mankind as a whole, as well as our own consciousness as individuals; with the help of these two things, as with two wings we can fly higher and come closer to God and to understand the truth.” — Giuseppe Mazzini
  • “The human soul, not by itself, but by some power, is pushed closer and closer to truth and goodness, and the better we understand this, the more humble we will be.” — Marcus Aurelius
  • “It is not the place we occupy which is important, but the direction in which we move.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Perfection

“The human world is always on the way to perfection, and the understanding of this process of perfection is one of mankind’s biggest joys, and this joy is accessible to every person.”

  • “When I talk of moving toward perfection, I mean moving from a material to a spiritual plane, a plane of goodness, without time or death.”
  • “Let your spiritual side guide your material side, and not the other way around. In order to improve his state, a person should strive for spiritual not physical perfection.”
  • “Perfecting the self is both an inner and an outer work: You cannot improve yourself without communicating with other people, influencing them, and being influenced by them.”
  • “Nobody knows where the human race is going. The highest wisdom, then, is to know where you should go: toward perfection.”
  • “They who have decided to dedicate their lives to spiritual perfection will never be dissatisfied or unhappy, because all that they want is in their power.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “In order to reach spiritual perfection, you should first of all take care of the purity of your soul. This can be reached when the heart looks for truth, and strives for wholeness, and depends on true knowledge.” — Confucius
  • “God is not an idol; he is an ideal which we should strive for in our everyday life.” — Lucy Malory
  • “Every man, from the king to the poorest pauper, should seek his own perfection, because only self-perfection improves mankind.” — Confucius 
  • “Socrates told his students that in good systems of education, there is a certain limit you should not go beyond. In geometry, he said, it is enough to know how to measure the land when you want to sell it or buy it, or how to share an inheritance, or to divide work among workers. He did not like too many sophisticated sciences; though he knew all of them. He said that sophisticated knowledge requires an extra effort that takes the student’s time from the most basic and the most important human pursuit: moral perfection.” — XENOPHON

Material & Spiritual

“Life is constant change; it ought to consist of weakening the material and increasing the spiritual side of our existence.”

  • “For a person to know the law that makes him free, he must be elevated from a material to a spiritual life.”
  • “A person can understand himself as a material or a spiritual being. When you understand yourself as a spiritual being, then you are free.”
  • “Only he who accepts that the essence or meaning of his life is not material but spiritual can be free.”
  • “In order to understand the true essence of a thing we must transform the physical into the spiritual.”
  • “Salvation from suffering and death lies in only one thing: in the transfer of my conscious ‘self’ from the material to the spiritual.”
  • “The more you transform your life from the material to the spiritual domain, the less you become afraid of death. A person who lives a truly spiritual life has no fear of death.”
  • “Those who are on top of the mountain can see the sunrise sooner than those who live in the valley. So, too, with those who achieve spiritual heights: they can see the heavenly sunrise sooner than those who live a material life. But the time will come when the sun will rise so high in the sky that everyone will see it.”
  • “Real living takes place not in the domain of outward change, but in the inner domain, where changes can hardly be observed, in our spiritual life.”
  • “Fire purifies everything in the material world; love purifies everything in the spiritual world.” — Henri Amiel

Spiritual Growth / Improvement

“People involve themselves in countless activities which they consider to be important, but they forget about one activity which is more important and necessary than any other, and which includes all other things: the improvement of their soul.”

  • “Our invisible work at the improvement of our soul is the most important work in the world, and all other visible kinds of work are useful only when we do this major work.”
  • “Your spirit must constantly assert itself because your body is constantly exerting itself. As soon as you stop working at your spirit, then your body will have complete power over you.”
  • “Your chief task in life is the care of your soul. You should care for your soul and work to improve it, and you can improve it only with love.”
  • “Start the improvement of this world from within.” — F. Robert De Lamennais 
  • “The first condition to bringing religion into your life is manifesting love and pity toward all living creatures.” — Chinese wisdom
  • “Our life is unceasing wonder, growth, and development.” — Lucy Malory
  • “We grow thus: We come closer to God and God comes closer to us as our will becomes united with the will of God.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “The ideal is within you, and the obstacle to reaching this ideal is also within you. You already possess all the material from which to create your ideal self.” — Thomas Carlyle

Faith

“What is faith? This is when your will is in consent with the world’s conscience and the world’s wisdom.” — Chinese Proverb

  • “Faith is the understanding of the meaning of life and the acceptance of those duties and responsibilities connected to it.“
  • “The foundation of all faiths is the same.”
  • “Faith is the foundation on which all else rests; it is the root of all knowledge.”
  • “We can never fully understand the final purpose of human life. A construction worker who works at a construction site can have no idea of the final form or general design of the large structure he builds, but he can know that he is working on something good, something beautiful, clever, and necessary, both for him and for the world. This is faith.“
  • “The way of life of any people depends on their faith. Faith, with time, becomes more simple, more clear, and closer to the real truth, and in accordance with the simplifying and clarifying of faith, people become more and more united.”
  • “True faith is faith only if the actions of your life are in harmony with it and never contradict it.”
  • “Faith is not true faith if love is not in harmony with it.“

Art of Living / Path of Life

“The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.”

  • “A person may not know the purpose of his life, but he should know how to live.”
  • “How to live your life is the only real knowledge.”
  • “The only real science is the knowledge of how a person should live his life. And this knowledge is open to everyone.”
  • “It is better to know several basic rules of life than to study many unnecessary sciences. The major rules of life will stop you from evil and show you the good path in life; but the knowledge of many unnecessary sciences may lead you into the temptation of pride, and stop you from understanding the basic rules of life.”
  • “Only when we forget what we were taught do we start to have real knowledge.” — Henry David Thoreau
  • “There is only one real knowledge: that which helps us to be free. Every other type of knowledge is mere amusement.” — Vishnu Purana, Indian wisdom
  • “Only those who have real knowledge know what to do.” — Indian Wisdom
  • “There is only one right pathway of life. Sooner or later, we all will meet each other on this pathway. The understanding of it is very clearly inscribed in our hearts, and it is wide and easy to find. At the end of this way is God, and He calls us to Himself. It is so painful to watch people who miss this way of life and go along the other pathway, the way of death.” — Nikolai Gogol
  • “Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.” — Jean Jacques Rousseau

Wisdom

“Wisdom is understanding how eternal truth can be applied to life.”

  • “The condition of wisdom is purity; the consequence of wisdom is the peace of your soul.“
  • “Wisdom is limitless, and the closer you approach it, the more important it becomes for your life.”
  • “There is no wisdom in he who thinks that he is wise.”
  • “Individuals die, but the wisdom they have obtained in their lives does not die with them. Mankind keeps all this wisdom, and a person uses the wisdom of those who lived before him. The education of mankind reminds me of the creation of the ancient pyramids, in that everyone who lives puts another stone in the foundation.”
  • “We can understand wisdom in three ways: first, by meditation; this is the most noble way. Secondly, by being influenced by someone or following someone; this is the easiest way. Third is the way of experience; this is the most difficult way.” — Confucius
  • “A wise man looks for everything inside of himself; a madman seeks for everything in others.” — Confucius
  • “A wise man seeks wisdom; a madman thinks that he has found it.” — Persian Proverb
  • “The more a person analyzes his inner self, the more insignificant he seems to himself. This is the first lesson of wisdom. Let us be humble, and we will become wise. Let us know our weakness, and it will give us power.” — William Ellery Channing 
  • “Socrates did not have the weakness of many scholars, the desire to know about all possible things, to learn the origins and explanations of things—what the Sophists call ‘the nature of things’—and to uncover the origins of the celestial bodies. Socrates said, ‘Is it true that people are so concerned with these earthly things? People wrongly think that they should know everything. They think that they can despise the most necessary and important fields of knowledge, and penetrate the mysteries that do not belong to us.'” — Xenophon

Knowledge

“Knowledge is limitless. Therefore, there is a minuscule difference between those who know a lot and those who know very little.”

  • “Knowledge is a tool, not a purpose.“
  • “Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.”
  • “What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge, but its quality. You can know many things without knowing that which is most important.”
  • “No matter how big mankind’s store of knowledge seems to me in comparison with our previous ignorance, it is only an infinitely small part of all possible knowledge.” 
  • “I think that the major obligation of parents and educators is to give children an understanding of the divine beginning that exists within them.” — William Ellery Channing
  • “A huge amount of knowledge is accumulated at present. Soon our abilities will be too weak, and our lives too short, to study this knowledge. We have vast treasures of knowledge at our disposal but after we study them, we often do not use them at all. It would be better not to have this burden, this unnecessary knowledge, which we do not really need.” — Immanuel Kant 
  • “Knowledge is limitless, and the most scholarly and educated person is as far from true knowledge as an uneducated peasant.” — John Ruskin
  • “We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see.” — Immanuel Kant
  • “You should study more to understand that you know little.” — Michel de Montaigne

Soul

“A person will understand his place in the world only when he understands his soul.” — Chinese Wisdom

  • “A person always has a place to be safe from all of his misfortunes, and this place is his soul.“
  • “If, in his soul, a person understands God, he understands his connection to all the world’s people.”
  • “The soul does not live in the body as in a house, but as in a tent, a place of temporary dwelling.” — Indian Wisdom
  • “The soul of a person is the lamp of God.” — The Talmud
  • “A soul does not learn; it simply remembers what it knew all the time.” — Daud El Gaffer
  • “The process of life should be the birth of a soul. This is the highest alchemy, and this justifies our presence on earth. This is our calling and our virtue.”
    — Henri Amiel
  • “Your soul is both your judge and your place of sanctuary. Your own soul is your highest judge.” — Manu
  • “A man consists of body and soul. Thus often, especially in his youth, he is interested only in his body, but nevertheless, the most essential part of every man is not his body, but his soul. It is your soul that you must take care of, not your body. You must learn this over time, and remember that your real life is in your spirit, that is, in your soul. Save it from everyday dirt and do not let your flesh guide it; subdue your body to your soul, and then you will fulfill your destiny and live a happy life.” — Marcus Aurelius

Conscience

“Conscience is the real judge between good and bad, conscience is what makes a person similar to God, and conscience is the greatest advantage of human nature.” — Jean Jacques Rousseau

  • “The voice of your conscience is the voice of God.“
  • “Life’s essence lies, not in your body, but in your conscience.“
  • “Conscience is the understanding of the divine beginning which lives in us.”
  • “You cannot fight with the requirements of conscience. These are the rule of God, and it is better to submit to them.”
  • “Do not do anything, either among others or alone, which is opposed by your conscience.”
  • “Older people who live spiritual lives ever widen their spiritual horizons, and ever expand their consciences.” — The Talmud
  • “Everything which can make us better and happier was given to us by God. If our conscience is clear, then nothing can harm us.” — Epictetus

Intellect

“The purpose of the intellect is to reveal the truth; therefore it is a harmful misconception to pervert the truth with intellectual efforts.”

  • “Every living being has sensory organs which reveal to it its place in the world. For a human, the primary sense is the intellect.“
  • “When a person tries to apply his intellect to the question ‘Why do I exist in this world?’ he becomes dizzy. The human intellect cannot find the answers to such questions. What does this mean? This means that our intellect is not given to us to find a solution for this question. Our intellect can only answer the question: ‘How shall I live?’ And the answer is simple: ‘We should live so as to bring good to all people.'”
  • “A man who lives an intellectual life is like a man who carries a lantern in front of him to light his way. Such a person will never come to a dark place, because the light of his intellect moves before him. There is no fear of death in this kind of life, because the lantern which moves before you lights your way to your last minute, and you follow it to the end as calmly and quietly as you have all your life.”
  • “God cannot be understood by the human intellect, only felt by the human heart.“
  • “In order to understand the truth, you should not suppress your intellect. On the contrary, you should purify your intellect, exercise it, and intellectually try and test everything which we can possibly put to the test.”
  • “The soul is a mirror in which you can see the reflection of divine intellect.” — John Ruskin
  • “Human intellect is a divine lamp, and its light penetrates to the depth of things.” — Eastern wisdom
  • “You should be a lantern for yourself. Draw close to the light within you and seek no other shelter.” — Buddhist Wisdom

Thinking

“Think good thoughts, and your thoughts will be turned into good actions. Everything begins in thought. Guiding your thoughts is one of the keys to self-perfection. If you suffer misfortunes in your life, look for their cause, not in your actions, but in the thoughts which inspired them, and try to improve those thoughts. If you are inspired by an event in your life, look for its origins in your previous thoughts which caused the event.”

  • “In order to change the nature of things, either within yourself or in others, one should change, not the events, but those thoughts which created those events.”
  • “A thought can advance your life in the right direction only when it answers questions which were asked by your soul.”
  • “Those who do not think independently are under the influence of somebody else who thinks for them. If you give your thoughts to somebody else, it is a more shameful slavery than if you give your body to someone to possess.”
  • “Thought is the glorification of truth; therefore, bad thoughts are those which have not been thought through to the end.”
  • “Great thoughts come directly from the heart.” — Luc de Vauvenargues 
  • “Every thought a person dwells upon, whether he expresses it or not, either damages or improves his life.” — Lucy Malory
  • “We should be ready to change our views at any time, and slough off prejudices, and live with an open and receptive mind. A sailor who sets the same sails all the time, without making changes when the wind changes, will never reach his harbor.” — Henry George 
  • “Work toward the purification of your thoughts. Without bad thoughts you will be incapable of bad deeds.” — Confucius
  • “We cannot prevent birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from making nests on top of our heads. Similarly, bad thoughts sometimes appear in our mind, but we can choose whether we allow them to live there, to create a nest for themselves, and to breed evil deeds.” — Martin Luther

Action / Effort

“The scholar who thinks but does not create is like the cloud which does not give rain.” — Eastern Wisdom 

  • “Every person should make a small effort, even the smallest effort, to improve the general well-being of humanity.”
  • “It would be nice if wisdom had such a quality that it could flow from one man who is full of wisdom to another man who has no wisdom, just as with two connected vessels water flows from one vessel to the other until the water level is the same in both of them. The problem is that to obtain wisdom, you must make an independent, serious effort of your own.”
  • “Mankind moves ceaselessly toward perfection, not of every person’s accord, but through the efforts that some particular individuals make toward their personal perfection. The kingdom of God will be created by these individual efforts.”
  • “Effort is the necessary condition of moral perfection.”
  • “The worst punishment is the understanding that you failed to properly use those good things which were given to you. Do not expect a big punishment. There can be no harder punishment than this remorse.”
  • “The virtue of a person is measured not by his outstanding efforts, but by his everyday behavior.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “The merit of a man is not in the knowledge he possesses, but in the effort he made to achieve it.” — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 
  • “You should be in a hurry to do good works, even small ones, and to avoid sin. One good thing leads to another, and one sin causes another. The reward for virtue is virtue, and the punishment for vice is more vice.” — The Talmud
  • “A wise man innately knows how to act without searching, because he has the divine within himself. The further you search and seek, the less you know.” — Lao-Tzu

Truth

“If truth makes our life easier, then it is better to accept the truth than to hide from it. Our life can be changed, but the truth cannot be changed: it will always remain the truth, and it will expose us.”

  • “People very often do not accept the truth, because they do not like the form in which the truth is presented to them.”
  • “If you know the truth, or if you think that you know the truth, try to pass it on to the others, as simply as you can, along with the feeling of love for those persons to whom you pass it.”
  • “Only misconceptions need to be supported by elaborate arguments. Truth can always stand alone.”
  • “The exposure of a lie is as valuable to a community as a clearly expressed truth.”
  • “Only the truth which was acquired by your own thinking, through the efforts of your intellect, becomes a member of your own body, and only this truth really belongs to us.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
  • “Truthfulness is the only real currency which circulates everywhere.” — Chinese Proverb
  • “Freeing a person from misconceptions, false truths, and lies does not take anything from him; it gives him something important.” — Arthur Schopenhauer 
  • “Every truth has its origin in God. When it is manifested in a man, this is not because it comes from him, but because he has such a quantity of transparency that he can reveal it.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “Look for the truth; it wants to be found.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “All goodness is as nothing compared to the goodness of truth; all sweets are as nothing compared to the sweetness of truth. The bliss of truth surpasses all other joys in the world.” — Buddhist Wisdom

Freedom

“Freedom cannot be achieved by looking for it, but in looking for truth. Freedom should not be a purpose, but a consequence.“

  • “If you feel that you are not free, look for the reason inside you.“
  • “The improvement of man can be measured by the level of his inner freedom.“
  • “A wise person lives in accordance with his desires, because he wants only that which is attainable. Such a person is free.“
  • “We have created a way of life which is contrary to mankind’s moral and physical nature, and yet we want to be free while living this kind of life.”
  • “Freedom cannot be granted to you by others. Each person can liberate only himself.“
  • “The most important and necessary expression of freedom is to give your thought a specific direction.“
  • “Submission to the law created by men makes one a slave; obedience to the law created by God makes one free.“
  • “They say that the highest good is freedom. And if freedom is goodness, then how can a free person be unhappy? If you see a person who is not happy you should know that he is not a free man; he is a slave of something. In order to be completely free, you should be ready to give to God all those things which you have received from him. You should be ready to unite your will with that of God.” — Epictetus
  • “Diogenes said, ‘A wise man becomes free when he is ready to die at any moment.’” — Epictetus

Love

“There is only one thing in this world which is worth dedicating all your life. This is creating more love among people and destroying barriers which exist between them.”

  • “You should love only one thing in yourself, that which is the same in all of us. In loving that which is the same in all of us, you love God.“
  • “Love is not a source, it is a consequence of our understanding the divine, spiritual beginning which exists in all of us.”
  • “To love God means to love the highest possible good which we can imagine in all things.”
  • “Love is real only when a person can sacrifice himself for another person. Only when a person forgets himself for the sake of another, and lives for another creature, only this kind of love can be called true love, and only in this love do we see the blessing and reward of life. This is the foundation of the world.”
  • “The greatest bliss a person can know is the state of complete freedom and happiness that can come only through self-sacrifice and love.“
  • “That feeling which solves all of the contradictions of human life and gives one the greatest bliss is known to all people: this feeling is love.”
  • “Real love refers not just to love for a particular person but to the spiritual state of loving everyone.”

Love Your Neighbor

“The most tender plants can push their way through the hardest rocks, and it is the same with kindness. Nothing can stop a truly kind and sincere person.” — Henry David Thoreau

  • “Christ expressed all His teachings in His last commandment: ‘Love each other, as I loved you. Everyone will see that you are my disciples, if you love each other.’ He did not say, ‘If you believe,’ but ‘If you love.’ Faith can change with time, because our knowledge is constantly changing. Love, on the contrary, never changes; love is eternal.“
  • “If you love your enemies, you will have no enemies.”
  • “If you are in a difficult situation, a low mood, if you are afraid of other people and of yourself, if you are tormented, then tell yourself: ‘I will love everyone whom I meet in this life.’ Try to follow this rule; and you will see that everything will find its way, and everything will seem simple, and you will no longer have doubts or fears.”
  • “Only those who know their weaknesses can be tolerant of the weaknesses of their neighbors.”
  • “The kinder and the more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy, and dull things become cheerful.”
  • “My religion is love to all living beings.”
  • “Kindness is for your soul as health is for your body: you do not notice it when you have it.”
  • “You ask me, what the most important feature of Christ’s character was. I will answer you: it was his confidence in the greatness of the human soul. He saw in a person the reflection of God’s image, and, therefore, he loved everyone, whoever a person was, without regard to his life or character.” — William Ellery Channing
  • “The general essence of all religions is love to your neighbor, and that this is requested by Manuf, Zoroaster, Buddha, Moses, Socrates, Jesus, Saint Paul, and Mohammed alike.” — Ewald Flugel 
  • “You have to respect every person, no matter how miserable or ridiculous he or she may be. You should remember that in every person lives the same spirit which lives in us.” — Arthur Schopenhauer 

Death / Eternity

“There is a certain limit to the appropriate length of any time in this world. Just as the fruits and vegetables are limited by the seasons of the year, everything should have its beginning, its life, and its ending, after which it should pass away. Wise people willingly submit to this order.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero 

  • “When you have doubts about what to do, just imagine that you might die at the end of that same day, and then all your doubts will disappear, and you will see clearly what your conscience tells you, and what is your true personal wish.”
  • “The more deeply you understand life, the less you grieve over the destruction caused by death.”
  • “You should live your life so that you are not afraid of death, and at the same time do not wish to die.”
  • “Life is the constant approach to death; therefore, life can be bliss only when death does not seem to be an evil.”
  • “The level of fear you feel about death is the level of your understanding of life.”
  • “Everything in this world blooms, grows, and returns to its roots. Returning to one’s roots means becoming united with nature; becoming united with nature involves eternity. The destruction of your body holds no danger in itself.” — Lao-Tzu
  • “Never postpone a good deed which you can do now, because death does not choose whether you have or haven’t done the things you should have done. Death waits for nobody and nothing. It has neither enemies, nor friends.” — Indian Wisdom
  • “What is important is not the length of life, but the depth of life. What is most important is not to make life longer, but to take your soul out of time, as every sublime act does. Only then does your life become fulfilled.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “Death is one step in a continuous development.” — Theodore Parker
  • “Who brought me into this world? According to whose command do I find myself at this exact place, during this particular time? Life is the remembrance of a very short day we spent visiting this world.” — Blaise Pascal
  • “A person’s purpose on this earth is to be in harmony with eternity. It is only then that the universal flow of love and intellect can be channeled through this person, as if through a clear pathway.” — Lucy Malory

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