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

by Leo Tolstoy

Do not be afraid to get rid of things which distract your attention—everything material, everything which can be seen or can be felt.

How to live your life is the only real knowledge.

Repentance always precedes perfection.

Not to accept your mistakes is to increase them.

You should live in such a way that you can confide anything on your mind.

The more important something is in your life, the more harmful it can be for you in the future if you abuse it.

When the intellect becomes the slave of vices and passions, the supporter of lies, it becomes not only a perversion, but an illness, and we cannot see the difference between truth and falsehood, good and evil, virtue and vice.

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.”

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

Only those who know their weaknesses can be tolerant of the weaknesses of their neighbors.

The man who cannot forgive destroys a bridge which he will have to cross, because every person needs forgiveness.

Almost always, when we look deep into our souls, we can find there the same sins which we blame in others. If we do not find a particular sin in our soul, then we should look more closely, and we will find even worse sins there.

A deep river is not troubled if you throw a stone into it. If a religious person is hurt by criticism, then he is not a river but a shallow pool. Forgive oth...

If we can put ourselves into the place of other people, w...

The intellect can liberate a person; the less of an intellectual life one has, the less liberated one is.

“You cannot enslave truly free people, just as you cannot enslave a fish. You may capture them, but you cannot force them to serve; they prefer to die as captives. So, what would it profit you to imprison them?”

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

Freedom cannot be granted to you by others. Each person can liberate only himself.

if you are a spiritual being, then the body limits your spiritual being, and death is only a change.

For those who live a spiritual life, there is no death.

The reward for virtue is virtue, and the punishment for vice is more vice.

Doing good is the only sure path to bliss.

Do not expect some tangible reward for your goodness; your actions are their own reward.

The greatest bliss a person can know is the state of complete freedom and happiness that can come only through self-sacrifice and love. Deny your personality, and you will come to understand the highest good in life: love.

Your thought is easily influenced by the presence of another soul; a person can be completely free only when he is alone.

Do not allow yourself to be infected by the mood or spirit of those who abuse you; do not step onto their path.

False ideas which gain currency can easily be recognized by the loud fanfare with which they are accompanied. Real truth does not need any outer embellishments.

Some people live and act according to their own thoughts, and some according to the thoughts of others; this is a crucial distinction between people.

When we praise other people it is because we think that they look like us; often to respect a person means to put him on the same level as oneself.

Many statements which are accepted as truth because they have been passed down to us by tradition look like truth only because we have never tested them, never thought about them in a more precise way.

Any important thought, no matter where it comes from, should be discussed; and every thought, no matter who said it, should be given attention.

all important events originate in a thought.

Our actions are neither as good nor as vicious as our desires.

Think only good thoughts, and with time they will become good deeds.

Notice, through meditation, all thoughts without good or evil distinction. Notice arising "goodness"

Everything begins in thought.

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.

The most important person is the one with whom you deal at present, because there is no guarantee that you will ever be able to deal with any other person in this world.

remember to live the best way you know now.

The present is the moment in which the divine nature of life is revealed.

You must believe that eternal goodness exists that is within you, and that it grows and develops as long as you live.

You alone plan to commit a sin, you alone plan to do evil; and you alone can escape sin and purify your thoughts. Only your inner self can damn you, and only your inner self can save you.

Every person has a depth to his inner life, an essence that cannot be explained.

To be wise, you must follow your intellect, even though such a way of life is often attacked.

Do not be interested in the quantity of people who respect and admire you, but in their quality. If bad people dislike you, so much the better.

Wisdom would not be real wisdom if it did not reveal the stupidity of a bad life, and people would not be people if they endured this revelation without criticism.

People are wise beings; they possess the ability to live according to the dictates of their intellect, and sooner or later, they will evolve from a state of violence to a state of complete harmony and understanding.

Kindness is a necessary addition to everything.

Kindness is the major quality of the soul. If a person is not kind, it is because he was subjected to some lie, passion, or temptation which violated his natural state.

Those people who are really close to goodness understand that real goodness for one is when all people have this goodness and share it among themselves.

You should do goodness without choosing to whom. Good things, once done, will never disappear, even if you forget about them.