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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Leo Tolstoy
Read between
July 22, 2023 - May 8, 2024
Every new desire is the beginning of a new wish, the beginning of a new sadness.
One hour of honest, serious thinking is more precious than weeks spent in empty talks.
The teaching about your inner life is the most useful one.
The real purpose of science is the understanding of the truth of this life.
Don’t be afraid of a person in any position, in low or high standing, whether he is a scholar or an ignorant person. If you respect all people, you should love all people, and fear no one.
Truth can be understood only by waiting and watching, and when you get one truth, two more will appear before you.
There is only one law of life which is really precious: though you meet all the time with injustice, remain humble.
You cannot be completely just. One time you do too little, the other time you do too much. There is only one way not to sin against justice; always to change things, to improve things, to make them better.
When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time.
A person always has a place to be safe from all of his misfortunes, and this place is his soul.
Do not be proud, no matter what high position you occupy in life.
Real art can only rarely be created even by a real artist; like a child in a mother’s womb, it is the ripened fruit of his prior life.
real art does not need any excess decoration;
Making yourself addicted is not a crime, but it is a preparation for crime.
The closer people are to the truth, the more tolerant they are of the mistakes of others.
if a good end can be achieved only through bad means, either it is not good after all, or its time has not yet come.
The intellect is like a light that comes through a translucent glass: I see it, and though I do not know where it comes from, I know that it exists.
Real goodness is not something that can be acquired in an instant, but only through constant effort,
“Renew yourself completely every day, and starting afresh, from the beginning.”
Strive for goodness without any expectations for rapid or noticeable success. You will not see the results of your efforts, because the further you progress, the higher the ideal of perfection toward which you strive rises.
The effort of striving for goodness, the process itself, justifies our lives.
A misconception remains a misconception, even when it is shared by the majority of the people.
Do not bother about what will happen someday, somewhere, in the far away distance, in a future time; think and be very attentive to what happens now, here, in this place.
There is a condition in which a person feels himself the architect of his life. It occurs when he concentrates all his efforts and all his intellect on the present moment.
Science fulfills its purpose, not when it explains the reasons for the dark spots on the sun, but when it understands and explains the laws of our own life, and the consequences of violating these laws.
No matter how great our knowledge may be, it cannot help us fulfill our life’s major purpose—our moral perfection.
As our self-interest diminishes, our anxieties disappear, and then comes quiet and firm joy, which always diffuses us with a good spiritual disposition and a clear conscience.
A kind person lives in a world of beneficent events, whose goodness matches his own.
If you know that you lack faith, know also that you are in one of the most dangerous situations in this world a person can be in.
A wise man looks for everything inside of himself; a madman seeks for everything in others.
You should treat your thoughts the way you treat your self, and treat your wishes the way you treat your children.
Our life would become wonderful if we could see all the disgusting things which exist in it.
only he who is free from hatred and fear is truly wise.
All violence is contrary to love: do not participate in violence.
The biggest obstacles to understanding the truth are lies disguised as truth.
The force of the truth is great, but its victory is difficult. However, once you receive this victory, it can never be taken from you.
The exposure of a lie is as valuable to a community as a clearly expressed truth.
Freeing a person from misconceptions, false truths, and lies does not take anything from him; it g...
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When you see that everything around you is impermanent, then you will perceive other, permanent and eternal things.
You should accept yourself, not as a master, but as a servant, and then all your bad feelings, your anxiety, alarm, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction will be changed into calmness and peace.
You will be filled inside with a clear vision of your purpose, and with a great joy.
All good things can be achieved only with effort.
Bad things are easy to do, good things are done only with work and effort.
A person cries out from pain when he takes up hard physical work after a period of idleness. Any rest from the struggle for spiritual improvement brings the same pain.
The most important and necessary expression of freedom is to give your thought a specific direction.
Work toward the purification of your thoughts. Without bad thoughts you will be incapable of bad deeds.
The soul does not live in the body as in a house, but as in a tent, a place of temporary dwelling.
Death is the destruction of the bodily organs with which I see my world during my life; the destruction of the glass through which I look at this world. The destruction of this glass does not mean the destruction of the eye itself.
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.
We cannot imagine the scope of our ignorance, just as a blind man cannot imagine darkness until he can see.
