A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se

by Leo Tolstoy

Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.

There are too many mediocre books which exist just to entertain your mind. Therefore, read only those books which are accepted without doubt as good. —LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA

The difference between real material poison and intellectual poison is that most material poison is disgusting to the taste, but intellectual poison, which takes the form of cheap newspapers or bad books, can unfortunately sometimes be attractive.

We do good only when we do not notice what we do, when we forget ourselves and live only in others.

A material evil done by a person does not return to the evildoer, but the evil feeling which was created by the sinful deed will fester in his soul and sooner or later make him suffer. If in the morning a person wants to do evil unto others, evil will return to him by nightfall. —INDIAN WISDOM

It is most difficult to achieve victory over oneself. Every man has power only over himself.

There is no material goodness which can restore the soul after the damage done by the evil which you create.

Remember: Those who suffer through to the end will be saved. Very often a person becomes desperate or even stops in his purpose when only a small effort is needed to achieve it.

The virtue of a person is measured not by his outstanding efforts, but by his everyday behavior. —BLAISE PASCAL

Other than our service to God, all our actions, whether we consider them important or not, are completely trivial. We may not know what the consequences of our actions will be, but we know what we should do.

The more busy you are with the improvement of your inner life, the more active you become in social life, helping other people.

Never build, but always plant: in the case of the first, nature will interfere and destroy the creation of your work, but in the case of the second, nature will help you, causing growth in everything you planted. The same thing happens in your spiritual life: those things which are in harmony with the eternal laws of human nature will grow, but those things which correspond to the temporal wishes of people will not.

The question of life’s meaning is a difficult problem which cannot be solved. So, too, is the question, “Why did God send us into this world?” But the meaning of life becomes very simple when a person asks himself, “What should I do?” 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.

There is only one way, if you want to live without understanding the meaning of your life: to become addicted to tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, and to live in the world of permanent entertainment.

Helping others takes the form not only of physical aid, but of spiritual support for your neighbor. Stop blaming your neighbor and respect his human dignity. Do not think that you are generous because you give your excess wealth to a poor person. Real generosity requires that you give this person a place in your heart. —From the BOOK OF DIVINE THOUGHTS

With humbleness, kindness, and self-sacrifice, you will take the weapon from any enemy. Any fire dies if there is insufficient wood. —BUDDHIST WISDOM

Try not to hide the shameful memories of your sins in dark corners. On the contrary, keep them close to you and remember them, before you judge your neighbor.

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

The majority of people now understand not only the uselessness, but also the stupidity and cruelty of any war.

Until such time as people reject the power of government to govern, to tax, to legislate, and to punish, war will never stop. War is the ...

Beware of those who want to convince you that it is impossible to strive for good just because it is impossible to reach perfection. —JOHN RUSKIN

It is difficult to bring people to goodness with lessons, but it is easy to do so by example. —Lucius ANNAEUS SENECA

The soul is a mirror in which you can see the reflection of divine intellect. —JOHN RUSKIN

The future is only an illusion inferred from our present state. 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. And do not ask yourself questions about time. Jesus did not explain a thing about the eternity of life, but his influence brought people to the eternal. —RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The level of fear you feel about death is the level of your understanding of life. The less you fear death, the more you possess freedom, tranquillity, and an understanding of the greatness of your spirit and the joy of life. The understanding of eternity is part of the nature of the human soul.

Remember that the spirit of God exists in every person, the same spirit that gives you life. Therefore you should not only love but respect the soul of every person as a holy place.

I do not grieve that a person dies, that he loses his money, his estate, or all his property, all that can belong to a man. But it is a great pity when a person loses his greatest possession, his human dignity. —EPICTETUS

Do not be afraid of the way your intellect calls into question old stories and legends. The pure intellect cannot destroy anything without replacing it with the truth: this is one of its essential qualities.

We have misconceptions not because we think illogically but because we live our lives badly. Ignorance cannot lead to evil, misconceptions lead to evil. It’s not what people do know, it’s what they pretend that they do. —JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. —JOHN 12:24-25

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

Man’s purpose is to serve all mankind, not to serve only one man while doing harm to others. For a Christian, the love of one’s motherland can be an obstacle to the love of one’s neighbor. Lost souls escape their loss of control in patriotism. —DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON

Woe to the world because of its stumbling block! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! And if your hand or your foot cause you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than having two hands and two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. —MATTHEW 18:7-9

One of the major obstacles impeding any positive future change in our lives is that we are too busy with our current work or activity. Levi quit his tax-work, Peter stopped fishing at a lake, Paul ceased being a priest. They all left their jobs because they thought it was necessary. —JOHN RUSKIN

If a person’s hand is not damaged, then it can withstand the bite of a poisonous snake. Its poison poses no danger to a healthy hand. Evil is harmless for h...

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

We do good to people not in hope of reward, but because we see the divine spirit within everyone. The best and easiest way to thwart evil in this world is to respond to it with kind words, return an evil action with good.

If you are gnawed by desire or fear you must not believe in God, who is filled with love, and who exists in you. If you believe in Him, you know that you need not wish for anything because the wishes of God always come true; and you need never be afraid of anything, because God fears nothing. The nature of a soul is so mysterious that no matter how hard we try to understand it, we will never be able to define it. —HERACLITUS

Only misconceptions need to be supported by elaborate arguments. Truth can always stand alone.

No person is without sin; no person is completely truthful. It is not that one person is virtuous and truthful and another is sinful and deceitful; rather it’s that one person strives to move toward truth and virtue and the other does not.

Only the spread of love between people can improve the existing social structure. Love gives meaning to human life. This we have known since antiquity. But what is love? Many wise people throughout the ages have tried to solve this question. If you raise people to praise only wealth, power, and glory, then naturally they will praise only these things. If you raise people to love the feeling of love, they will start to live in love. —MEE-TEE, a student of CONFUCIUS

Our understanding of ourselves as discrete beings separate from each other grows out of conditions of our life in time and space. The less we feel this separation, the more we feel our unification with all other living creatures, the lighter our load, and the more joyful our life will be. For the body is not one member, but many…. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. —I CORINTHIANS 12:14,26

God created heaven and earth, but they lacked the ability to understand the happiness of their existence. Then God made creatures who could understand the happiness of their existence, and who could create a single body from all of its thinking parts. 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

Do not be embarrassed by all your bad deeds, by all your misfortunes. Do not be embarrassed, but fight ceaselessly, bravely, and without hesitation, because the kingdom of God will come. —F. ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS

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

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

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

They who say that doing good causes them unhappiness either don’t believe in God or aren’t doing something that is truly good.

We should separate the religion that was taught by Jesus from the religion whose subject is Jesus. Then we will understand the real meaning of the New Testament and follow it. —HENRI AMIEL

Science is seldom connected with wisdom. A scholarly person knows many unnecessary things. A wise person knows few things, but all that he knows is necessary both for humanity and for himself.