A Calendar of Wisdom: New Translation (Alma Classics)

by Leo Tolstoy

Keep your heart clear of other people’s worries, and do not meddle in things that do not concern you.

The Roman sage Seneca said that whenever you feel the onset of anger, the best way to contain it is simply to be quite still and do nothing: don’t walk, or move, or say anything. If you allow your body to do whatever it wants, the anger inside you will simply increase.

If a person seeks wisdom, he is clever, but if he thinks he has found it, then he is mad.

It is the highest form of impudence for one group of people to lay down a religious law that has not been discussed by others and that has to be accepted by other people on trust.

Isn't that the whole point of religion?

The majority of life’s problems can be solved as if they were algebraic equations: by reducing them to their simplest form.

In asking for help from God, we learn to find such help from within ourselves. It’s not He who changes us, it’s we who change ourselves in getting close to Him.

So prayer is meditation with an imaginary friend

It is better for a stupid man to remain silent. But if he knew that, then he wouldn’t be a stupid man. Saadi, Gulistan

the fine arts are not imbued with moral ideals that are common to the whole of mankind – ideals which alone are capable of uniting all people – then they can serve merely as frivolous entertainment to which people resort in accordance with their wishes, so as to deaden their discontent with themselves. Yet, in doing this, they become even more useless and even more discontented with themselves.

Never praise or criticize yourself in front of other people. If you praise yourself, people won’t believe you; if you criticize yourself, they will think even worse of you. It would therefore be best to refrain from saying anything about yourself.

A thought, once it has been expressed in words, is a serious matter. It is wrong to use your thoughts and words in order to justify your behaviour.

When you emerged into this world you cried, while everyone else was overjoyed. Try to see to it that, when you leave this world, everyone cries, while you alone smile.

who ever knew Truth put to the worst in a free and open encounter? Her

The problem being the contest isn't free and open

We often judge other people: some we call good, others bad, some clever, others stupid. But this is wrong. A person flows along like a river. Every day he’s both unchanged and different at the same time: one moment he’s stupid, the next he’s clever; one moment good the next bad, and vice versa. It’s wrong therefore to judge others. As soon as you start judging someone, he becomes a different person.

So long as you remember your own failings and try to correct them, it will never occur to you to criticize other people – and, besides, you won’t have the time to do this.

In acquiring any object and making use of it, bear in mind that it is the product of someone else’s work and that if you waste, damage or destroy it you are wasting and destroying someone else’s life.

It is not enough to say that any help you give to others should be mutual. If you accept help from your brothers, you should pay it back not only with money, but also with respect and with gratitude.

Remember that a stupid person is a bad judge of what constitutes rational behaviour.

You are only able to see your own faults through the eyes of other people.

We all use someone else as a mirror in which we can clearly discern our own faults, shortcomings, and everything else that may be wrong about us. But when we look into this mirror, we act for the most part like a dog who looks into the mirror supposing that it is reflecting another dog rather than it itself.

A huge amount of knowledge deserving our attention and study is being accumulated nowadays. Soon our intellectual abilities will have become too weak and life will have become too short for us to assimilate even only the most useful areas of such knowledge. We have an extraordinary abundance of riches at our disposal but, in taking it all in, we have to discard a great deal as useless rubbish. It would sometimes be better not to have been burdened with it in the first place.

Do not be afraid of ignorance, but be afraid of false knowledge. All the world’s evils derive from it. Tolstoy

The protection of the masses has in all times been the pretense of tyranny – the plea of monarchy, of aristocracy, of special privilege of every kind… But, whether under a monarchy or under a republic, is there an instance in the history of the world in which the “protection” of the labouring masses has not meant their oppression? The protection that those who have got the law-making power into their hands have given to labour, has at least always been the protection that man gives to cattle – he protects them, that he may use and eat them.

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say “I think”, “I am”, but quotes some saint or sage. Emerson,

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other.

One of the most common and widespread misconceptions is that each of us has our own definite characteristics – good, bad, clever, stupid, warm, cold, etc. But people aren’t like that. What we can say is that a person is more often good than bad, more often clever than stupid, more often warm than cold and vice versa, but it would be wrong to say about one person that he is always good or clever, or about another that he is always bad or stupid. Yet that is how we always categorize people. And that is wrong.

The most common reason why people are reluctant to accept the truth is that they feel offended by the form in which it has been expressed. Tolstoy

In any controversy, the instant we feel angry, we have already ceased striving for Truth, and begun striving for ourselves. Carlyle, ‘Voltaire’

Clever people study for the sake of knowledge; insignificant people study so that they can become known. Eastern wisdom

If people study for themselves, that is useful for them. But when they do it for other people in order to appear learned, such activity is not only useless, but harmful. Chinese wisdom

Human beings are higher than other animals not because they can heartlessly torture them, but because they can take pity on them. Buddhist wisdom

So long as you are alive you should learn. Don’t wait for old age to confer wisdom on you.

Above all, get quit of the absurd idea that Heaven will interfere to correct great errors, while allowing its laws to take their course in punishing small ones. If you prepare a dish of food carelessly, you do not expect Providence to make it palatable; neither if, through years of folly, you misguide your own life, need you expect divine interference to bring round everything at last for the best.

Virtue only begins when there is effort involved.

We are so far from perfection that, however varied the lives we lead, we all remain equally distant from it. Tolstoy

The wise person demands everything only of himself; the insignificant person demands everything only from other people. Chinese wisdom

The truth that is learned by rote latches itself onto us like an artificial limb, or a false tooth, or a wax nose, or most of all, like someone else’s nose. But the truth that has been acquired by your own thoughts is like a real part of your body; it alone can actually belong to you. Schopenhauer,

since our will could not be free,

Or we don't actually have free will

Our desires are like little children who are always restless and who keep on asking their mother for now this, now that, now another, but who are never satisfied with anything. The more one gives in to their demands, the more they carry on pestering. From Pious Thoughts

Who is wise? Those who learn something from everybody else. Who is strong? Those who act in a restrained way. Who is rich? Those who are content with their lot. The Talmud

Enjoyment leads to sadness, enjoyment leads to fear. Those who are free from enjoyment know neither sad...

2nd June

Based on today's wisdom it's International Sexist day

Just as it is a fact that a stone, when thrown into the air, will not remain there but will return to earth, so all your actions, good or bad, will return to you, in fulfilment of your heart’s desire, no matter what path you take in life. Sinhalese Buddhist wisdom

moral teachings or by religion,

They are two separate things.

We can acquire wisdom in three ways: through meditation, the noblest way; through imitation, the easiest way; and through experience, the hardest way. Confucius

Some of us, in referring to someone else and painting a really black picture of them, are not aware that we are talking about ourselves.

The quickest and surest way to become known as a virtuous person is to practise being one. When you look closely at all the virtues you will see that they are enhanced by hard work and practice. Socrates

People are criticized for not saying anything; people are criticized for saying too much; people are criticized for not saying enough. There is not a single person who cannot be criticized for something or other. Dhammapada

Do not trust yourself when everything seems wrapped in gloom, everybody seems to be at fault, and everybody wants to say or do something unpleasant. Whenever that happens look upon yourself as if you were drunk and do nothing; just wait until the condition passes. The less you do when you find yourself in that condition, the more quickly it will go away. Such restraint is as necessary as sleep for someone who is drunk. Tolstoy

No political alchemy will get golden conduct out of leaden instincts. Spencer, ‘The Coming Slavery’

Tolstoy

Anti-intellectual dick