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

by Leo Tolstoy

He who understands his soul will understand the divine spark within himself. —MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO

The goodness given to us by wisdom compares to all other knowledge in the same way that in a desert, a vessel filled with water compares to mountains of gold.

Older people who live spiritual lives ever widen their spiritual horizons, and ever expand their consciences. Older people who live only a daily routine become more and more stupid over the years. —The TALMUD

Terrible is the situation of those who cannot perceive spiritual growth in themselves. They can see only physical life, which will disappear in time. When you understand your spiritual being and live with it, then instead of despairing you understand the joy that can never be destroyed, which always grows.

Kindness and virtue come from the heart, and should be performed without thought for the opinion of others, or of future rewards.

Charity is good only when it comes as a sacrifice; only then do those who receive the material gift receive the spiritual gift too. If it is not a sacrifice but a discharge of excess, it can only irritate those who receive it.

Old fortresses are destroyed, monuments to kings are demolished, old age ravages our bodies. Only the teachings of kindness are never ruined or affected by age.

The universe is limitless, and impossible for anyone to understand. Therefore, we cannot completely understand the life of our own body. —BLAISE PASCAL

As long as there is violence, there will be war. One cannot defeat violence with more violence, only with nonresistance to and nonparticipation in it. —LETURNO

If my soldiers started thinking, not a single soldier would remain in my army. —FREDERICK II

Wars can be stopped only if people are ready to be persecuted for not participating in them. This is the only way.

Family and motherland are but two circles that are part of the wider circle that is humanity. Those who teach morality and who limit one’s duties only to family and country teach a selfishness which is dangerous for all of us. 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. True religion creates this understanding, and different prejudices interfere with it—prejudice of state, nation, and class.

The past does not exist. The future has not begun. The present is an infinitely small point in time in which the already nonexistent past meets the imminent future. At this point, which is timeless, a person’s real life exists. “Time passes by!” we say. Time does not exist; only we move. —After the TALMUD

Time does not exist. There is only a small and infinite present, and it is only in this present that our life occurs. Therefore, a person should concentrate all his spiritual force only on this present.