A Calendar of Wisdom: New Translation (Alma Classics)

by Leo Tolstoy

The point is that we have not been given our ability to reason in order to answer such questions, and that the very posing of these questions means that there is a fault in our reasoning.

Disagree

Wealth is like manure: it stinks when it is heaped up, but when it is scattered about the earth it fertilizes it. Tolstoy

Only reason can liberate people. The more irrational someone’s life is, the less free it becomes. Tolstoy

Freedom is achieved not by searching for it, but by searching for the truth. Freedom should not be an aim, but a consequence. Tolstoy

I would ask him to define truth because in other passages he denigrates intellectual pursuits of knowledge which is pursuing truth for me. Am I correct in assuming he would be pursuing spiritual truth, which I regard as fantasy bullshit?

Those who think only of themselves and seek advantage for themselves in everything cannot be happy. If you wish to live for yourself, then live for others. Seneca, MLL

There is no more unreliable guide in life than the opinions of other people. Tolstoy

It is said that we are not free because everything we do has a prior cause. But we act only in the present, and the present is outside time, as it is merely the point of contact between two times, the past and the future. At any one moment of the present we are therefore free. Tolstoy

The cross which people bear consists of a larger vertical section representing the will of God and a smaller horizontal section representing their own will. If we were to bring our will in line with the will of God the cross would disappear. Tolstoy

Religious people should love this one.

All human disasters arise from the absence of religion. It is impossible to live without religion. Only religion provides us with a definition of good and bad, and therefore it is only on the basis of religion that we are able to choose how to behave and what we are able to do. […]

Bullshit

The only sure way of doing good is to be happy. Tolstoy

I don't think so. People so a lot of bad things for their own happiness.

Once it has been satisfied, every desire diminishes, whereas every vice increases. Amiel, PJ

false art

How can art be true or false? It's meant to be emotionally evocative. Critical opinion is irrelevant in the long run.

Only non-believers – that is to say, those who do not believe in the spiritual basis to their lives, believing instead in external influences which they have adopted – can be intolerant.

Apparently he hasn't met some of the religious people I have.

Anyone who wishes to promote their faith by violent means or the use of external force, or who would like to see it spread abroad as soon as possible, has either very little faith, or no faith at all.

Sensing how empty their lives are, people dash all over the place in their search for pleasure. But they cannot yet sense the emptiness of the new idiocy that is luring them ever forward. Pascal, Thoughts

9th September

Fuck science day. This dude ia a Luddite.

A lie that is unmasked is just as significant for the well-being of mankind as a clearly expressed truth.

It is the person who has unquestioningly accepted someone else’s word that God exists, or that he does not.

What if they reach one of those conclusions on their own?

However great the extent of our current knowledge might appear when compared with our former ignorance, it is nonetheless only an infinitely tiny fraction of all possible knowledge. Tolstoy

I actually agree with this

It is better to know less than we are able to know, than to know more than we need to know. Do not be afraid of ignorance, but beware of anything superfluous or anything that can overburden you, just so that you can boast about how much you know. Tolstoy

This O disagree with. You should always strive for more knowledge, but don't assume you know everything and be open to being wrong.

Do not place the burden of anything you can do yourself onto other people. Let each of us sweep outside our own front door; if we all do that then the entire street will be clean. Tolstoy

We need to learn a lot before we can recognize how little we know. Montaigne, Essays

The proud man has no respect for himself, but only for other people’s opinions of him. The man with an awareness of his true worth has respect only for himself and despises public opinion.

Throughout the ages and in every human society, there has always been a general religious awareness of what is good and what is bad, and it is this religious awareness that determines the value of the emotions conveyed by art.

But lots of religions didn't worry about morality and were just instructions for keeping the gods happy.

People with noble and beautiful souls are always calm and contented; people with souls of little worth are always discontented and sad.

Well fuck you too.

It is said that God created man in his own image. This probably means that it was man who created God in his own image. Lichtenberg, Notebooks

Lack of respect for tradition has not inflicted a tiny fraction of the harm caused by the respect for the customs, laws and institutions for which nowadays there is no longer any rational justification.

Ignore God’s law and promote human law? We

Yes.

replace human law with God’s law.

Which god and which law? I doubt you're lining up for Sharia law.

Refrain from arguing; arguments are the least effective way to convince anyone of anything. Opinions are like nails; the stronger you hit them the deeper they go in. Juvenal

Modern psychology research baxks this up. But he says it cooler.

Never say anything about which you are not completely certain. Don’t believe everything you hear.

When we are asleep and dreaming, we are often aware that we are doing really foul, immoral things, but we are unable to stop ourselves doing them. […]

What kind of dreams was he having?

We suffer because of the past and we ruin our future only because we neglect the present. The past and the future are just dreams; only the present is real.

There are people who deliberately place themselves in extremely gloomy circumstances so that they feel they have the right to be gloomy. They are therefore always extremely and persistently busy. They mainly take pleasure in casting their gloomy, obstinate activity in the face of any cheerful aspect of life they happen to come across. Such people are extremely unhappy; they have to understand that they are the cause of their own unhappiness.

I have met people like this and sometimes have been this person

A person’s virtue is measured not by anything exceptional he does but by his everyday behaviour. Pascal, Thoughts

(in Lichtenberg’s view our feelings of compassion towards animals is in direct proportion to their size),

It's actually how cute they are

Our age is undoubtedly the age of criticism. Religion and legislation imagine they can avoid criticism. Religion on account of its saintliness, legislation on account of its apparent authority. But it is precisely these factors which make people suspicious of them, and they cannot rely on unfeigned respect, because reason respects only those things that can stand up to free and public examination.

Ignorance never leads to evil; it is delusion that is pernicious. People are deluded not because they don’t know anything, but because they consider themselves to be knowledgeable. Rousseau,

Whenever anything seems worthy of our particular respect we need to strip it naked and ignore what has been said in its favour, because our reason can be distorted by external appearance. For it is precisely when we are completely certain that what we are engaged in doing is worthy of our respect that we are most clearly deceived. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

If a good deed has a motivating cause then it is no longer good. Neither can it be considered good if it is done with the view of obtaining a reward. Good stands outside the chain of cause and effect. Tolstoy

In itself, truth is not a virtue, but it is an essential condition of everything good.

You can often hear it said that all our efforts to change life, to root out evil and to establish a just society, are pointless, as it will happen naturally, of its own accord. People have been travelling along in a boat, but the oarsmen have disembarked, and those remaining on board do not take up the oars, because they suppose that the boat will simply carry on moving along as before. Tolstoy

those who stake their all on such things as good health, wealth and power will always lead fearful, anxious and tormented lives.

You will understand that the significance of the Gospels lies in their guidance as to how we should live rather than to make clever statements.

But they're full of terrible shit

There is no such thing as time; we are the ones who are moving.