A Confession

by Leo Tolstoy

And Sakya Muni could find no consolation in life, and decided that life is the greatest of evils; and he devoted all the strength of his soul to free himself from it, and to free others; and to do this so that even after death, life shall not be renewed any more, but be completely destroyed at its very roots. So speaks all the wisdom of India. These, then, are the direct replies that human wisdom gives, when it replies to life’s question. “The life of the body is an evil and a lie. Therefore the destruction of the life of the body is a blessing, and we should desire it,” says Socrates. “Life is that which should not be—an evil; and the passage into Nothingness is the only good in life,” says Schopenhauer. “All that is in the world—folly and wisdom and riches and poverty and mirth and grief—is vanity and emptiness. Man dies and nothing is left of him. And that is stupid,” says Solomon. “To live in the consciousness of the inevitability of suffering, of becoming enfeebled, of old age and of death, is impossible—we must free ourselves from life, from all possible life,” says Buddha. And what these strong minds said has been said and thought and felt by millions upon millions of people like them. And I have thought it and felt it. So my wandering among the sciences, far from freeing me from my despair, only strengthened it. One kind of knowledge did not reply to life’s question, the other kind replied directly confirming my despair, indicating not that the result at which I ha...