Tolstoy thought for every day. Thoughts for every day. Tolstoy Lev NikolaevichThe thoughts of wise people for every day

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich

Thoughts of wise people for every day

“During Leo Tolstoy's grave illness in January 1903, when his life was hanging by a thread and he could not give himself up to his usual work, he still found strength to read the Gospel and out of habit, daily tearing off the calendar in his bedroom, he read the collected there are sayings of various great people. But last year's calendar came to an end, and Lev Nikolaevich, in the absence of another at hand, wanted to compose for himself excerpts from different thinkers for every day. Every day, being in bed, as far as his strength allowed, he made these extractions, and the result of this work was the book offered to the readers.

This includes selected thoughts of the following writers and sages: Epictetus, Diogenes, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Lao-Tse, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine and more modern: Pascal, Rousseau, Spinoza, Luther, Vovenargue, Kant, Schiller, Bentham, Schopenhauer, Voltaire, Klinger, Thackeray, Dostoevsky, Wilmen, Ruskin, etc..».

"Mediator", 1903

One winter Francis was walking with his brother Lev from Peruza to Portsionkul; it was so cold that they were trembling from the cold, Francis called Brother Leo, who was walking in front, and said to him: “Oh, brother Leo, God grant that our brothers set an example of holy life throughout the earth; - write down, however, that this is not the perfect joy. "

“And write also, brother Leo, that if our brothers heal the sick, cast out demons, make the blind see or raise the dead four days ago, write that even this will not be perfect joy.”

And, going even further, Francis said to Leo: “Write down again, brother Leo, that if our brothers knew all languages, all sciences and all the scriptures, if they prophesied not only about the future, but would know all the secrets of conscience and soul, - write down that there is no perfect joy in this either.

Going even further, Francis again called Leo and said: “And also write down, brother Leo, sheep of God, that if we could learn to speak in the tongues of angels, if we knew the flow of the stars, and if all the treasures of the earth were revealed to us, and we knew if all the secrets of the lives of birds, fish, all animals, people, trees, stones and waters - write down that this would not be perfect joy ”.

And after walking a little more, Francis again called brother Leo and said to him: "Write down also that if we were such preachers that we would convert all pagans to the faith of Christ, write down that there would not be perfect joy in this either."

Then Brother Leo said to Francis: "Where is, Brother Francis, perfect joy?"

And Francis replied: “Here's what. Is that if, when we come to Portsionkyl, we are dirty, wet, numb from the cold and hungry and ask to let us in, and the doorkeeper tells us: “What are you, vagabonds, wandering around the world, seducing people, stealing alms of poor people, get out of here ! " - and will not open to us. And if then we are not offended and with humility and love think that the gatekeeper is right, that God Himself inspired him to do this with us, and wet, cold and hungry we will wake up in the snow and in the water until morning without murmuring against the gatekeeper, then, Brother Leo , only then will there be perfect joy. "

People find it difficult, worried and worried only when they are busy with external affairs that are beyond their control. In these cases, they anxiously ask themselves: “What am I going to do? What will happen? What will come of this? How would this or that not happen? " This is the case with those who constantly care about what does not belong to them.

On the contrary, a person who is busy with what depends on him and who puts his life in the work of self-improvement will not worry himself so much. If he began to worry about whether he would be able to hold on to the truth and avoid lies, then I would say: calm down - that which disturbs you is in your own hands; just look at your thoughts and actions and try to correct yourself in every possible way. Do not say: "Something will happen?" Whatever happens, you turn it into a lesson and benefit.

- What if I die fighting misfortune?

- Well, what then? In this case, you will die the death of an honest man, doing what you have to do. You need to die anyway, and death must find you doing something. I would be pleased if death found me doing a deed worthy of a man, a deed kind and useful to all people; or so that she finds me at a time when I try to correct myself. Then I could raise my hands to God and say to Him: “Lord! You yourself know how much I took advantage of what You gave me to understand Your laws. Have I reproached You? Did you resent what happened to me? Was he shirking his duty? I thank You for being born, for all Your gifts. I have used them enough: take them back and dispose of them as you please - they are yours! "

Could there be a better death? To live to such a death, you do not need to lose much, although, it is true, by this you will gain a lot. If you want to keep what is not yours, then you will certainly lose what is yours.

He who wants to be successful in worldly affairs does not sleep all night long, constantly fussing and fussing, forging strong people and generally behaving like a vile person. And in the end, what did he achieve with all this? He achieved that he was surrounded by some honors, that they were afraid of him and that, having become a boss, he was in charge of some actions. Do you really not want to work a little in order to free yourself from all such worries and sleep peacefully, without fear of anything and without suffering anything? Know, then, that such peace of mind does not come for free.

(Epictetus)

Whether our life ends with carnal death is a question of the greatest importance, and a rare person does not think about it. Depending on whether or not we believe in eternal life, and our actions will be reasonable or meaningless. Every reasonable deed is necessarily based on confidence in the immortality of true life.

Therefore, our first concern should be to make out and understand what is immortal in life. Some people are working hard to figure it out for themselves. They recognize that their whole life should depend on it.

Other people, although they doubt immortality, sincerely torment their doubts and consider it their greatest misfortune. They spare nothing, just to find out the truth, tirelessly seek it and consider it the most important thing in their life.

But there are also people who do not think about it at all. Their negligence, where it is about themselves, surprises, outrages and frightens me.

(Vlas Pascal)

Judge not lest ye be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you mete, it will be measured to you also. And why are you looking at the mote in your brother's eye, but you don't feel the beam in your eye? Or, as you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, and here is the log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

(Mm. VII, 1-5)

It is easy to notice the delusions of others, but it is difficult to notice your own; they love to understand the mistakes of loved ones, but they hide theirs, like a rogue tries to hide his fake dice.

A person is inclined to constantly blame others: he only looks at their mistakes, but his own passions grow more and more, removing him from improvement.

(Buddhist wisdom)

Do not judge your neighbor until you are in his place.

(Talmud)

One thing we know, or can know if we want, is that the heart and conscience of man are divine, that in the denial of evil and the recognition of good, man himself is an incarnate deity; that his joy in love, his suffering in anger, his indignation at the sight of injustice, his glory in self-sacrifice are eternal, indisputable evidence of his unity with the supreme Sovereign; that in this, and not in bodily advantages and not in a greater variety of instincts, he himself is the master over the lower animate world. Since he denies or violates the dictates of the heart and conscience, in so far as he dishonors the name of the heavenly Father, and does not sanctify His name on earth; because he follows them, he sanctifies His name and receives from the fullness of His power.

(John Ruskin)

He, whose faith is weak, cannot stir up faith in others.

(Lao-Tse)

The sin of the whole world is, in essence, the sin of Judas. People do not believe in their Christ, but sell Him.

AUGUST

He who seeks learning grows every day in the eyes of the world.

The one who seeks reason is diminished every day.

He diminishes more and more until he attains complete humility. When he has reached complete humility, there is no thing that he cannot do.

Lao-Tce.

True words are never pleasant. Nice words are never true.

The kind are not disputants; disputants are not kind.

The wise are not learned. Scientists are not wise.

A holy person collects nothing, and the more he does for others, the more he gains.

The heavenly mind is good, but does no harm. The mind of a saint makes him act, but not argue.

Lao-Tse.

The following words were carved into the bath of King Ching-Chang: “Renew yourself perfectly every day; do it over, over and over again. "

The virtue of the sages resembles a journey to a distant country and an ascent to a height: those who go to a distant country begin their walk from the first step; the climbers start from the foot of the mountain.

Confucius.

How good it is for a person when he is weary in a vain search for the good in worldly life and stretches out, tired, his hands to Christ.

Vlas Pascal.

In order not to spill a full vessel, you must carefully keep it straight.

To keep the blade sharp, you need to constantly sharpen it.

If gold and precious stones fill the house, then it is difficult to keep them.

The rich, the noble, and the proud make themselves unhappy.

In order to do what is worthy and gain glory, it is best to retire to solitude.

This is the true path of holiness.

Lao-Tse.

We do not have enough knowledge to even understand at least only the life of the human body. See what you need to know for this: the body needs space, time, movement, warmth, light, food, water, air, and more. In nature, however, everything is so closely interconnected that it is impossible to know one without studying the other. You cannot know the parts without knowing the whole. We will understand the life of our body only when we study everything that it needs; and for this it is necessary to study the entire universe. But the universe is infinite and its knowledge is unattainable for man. Consequently, we cannot fully understand for ourselves the life of our body.

Vlas Pascal.

A man is in prison and does not know what sentence has been passed on him. He has only an hour left to find out about this, and if he finds out that he is sentenced to death, then this hour is enough for him to procure the cancellation of this sentence. Will he use this hour not to find out what the sentence is, but to play cards? It would be incongruous with anything. And meanwhile people do this just as they do not think about God and about eternity.

Vlas Pascal.

Every bird knows where to make its home. Knowing where her home is, she shows that she knows her purpose. Can't man, the smartest of all creatures, know the same thing as a bird?

Chinese wisdom ("Ta-Khio").

Who among you, having a slave plowing or herding, upon his return from the field, will say to him: Go quickly, sit down at the table?

On the contrary, will he not say to him: prepare me supper and, girding, serve me while I eat and drink, and then eat and drink yourself?

Will he begin to thank this servant for fulfilling the command? I don’t think so.

Likewise, when you have done everything you have been commanded, say: we are slaves, worthless, because we did what we had to do.

Luke. XVII, 7-10.

Take a seat lower than you should.

It is better if they tell you: go up higher than: go down.

He who exalts himself, God humbles him, and who humbles himself, God exalts him.

Talmud.

Wise consumption is much more difficult than wise production. What twenty people can hardly produce, then one can easily consume, and a matter of life, as for everyone an individual, and for the whole people, is not how much it will produce, but what these products are spent on.

John Ruskin.

People usually argue that personal practical activity is powerless to influence in any way a change or delay in the vast system of modern industry or modes of production and trade.

But I, pondering the mass of clever conversations that enters one long ear of the world and leaves the other, without making the slightest impression on his mind, sometimes feel an irresistible desire to try to use the rest of my life to silently do the work that I think it's reasonable, and never talk about anything else.

John Ruskin.

Some people are so afraid of the ignorance in which a person by nature has to live, they are so afraid of death and all misfortunes that they try not to think about these things at all. They are constantly looking for new entertainment and pleasures, thinking by this to drown out their anxiety and find happiness. But in this way they cannot receive satisfaction, since a person who seeks his pleasure is never satisfied: having received what he wanted, he does not calm down, but immediately experiences new desires that have not yet been satisfied.

Vlas Pascal.

They usually think that the king's life is the most better life... However, if the king is left without entertainment and has time to think about what he himself is, then he will see his unhappy situation, remembering everything that threatens him: about disobedience, about riots, illness, death. And therefore the king, if he does not have fun, is more unhappy than his last subject, who can play cards and have fun.

Vlas Pascal.

The heavenly mind acts like a person drawing a bow. He brings down what was above and lifts what was below. He takes away from those who have abundance and adds to those who are in need. This is the heavenly mind. But the human mind is not like that. He takes away from the poor in order to add to the abundant. Therefore, a holy man, having an abundance, gives it to the whole world.

Lao-Tse.

It is just as unusual for a wise person to speculate a lot about the nature of beings above him, as about the nature of beings below him. It is too immodest to assume that a person can comprehend the former, as it is too humiliating to assume that he can fully focus his attention on the latter. To recognize your eternal relative greatness and insignificance, to know yourself and your place in nature, to be content with your submission to God, not being able to comprehend him, and to rule the lower creatures with love and kindness, not sharing their animal passions and not imitating them, - this is what it means to be humble in relation to God, kind in relation to his creatures and wise in relation to oneself.

John Ruskin.

One of the specific conditions of human labor is that the fullness is in accordance with the time of sowing and the harvest, and because the more distant the goal of our aspirations in general, the less we want to see the fruits of our labors ourselves, the larger and wider the measure of our success will be.

John Ruskin.

He who does evil prosper until the fruit of his evil deeds is ripe; but when this fruit ripens, then the one who does iniquity will see all his evil.

Wicked days sees the virtuous, - the fruits of his good deeds are still not ripe; but he will be blessed when his deeds bear good fruit.

Dhammapada.

Do not seek glory in the disgrace of others.

It is fitting for an advanced person to hide the shame of others, even those who have harmed him.

Do not remind the repentant about his previous sins.

Talmud.

But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend you and persecute you.

Mt. V, 44.

A wonderful property of a person is the ability to love those who are hostile against him. This love awakens in him by understanding, understanding that all people are brothers, that they sin against their will, that the offender and the victim will face the same end, and most importantly, that an offense cannot harm a person, for only he himself can harm his soul.

Marcus Aurelius.

“Here I will dwell during the rains, there I will settle in the summer” - this is how a madman dreams and does not think about death, but it suddenly comes and carries away an anxious, selfish, scattered person like a flood washes away a sleeping village.

Neither son, nor father, nor relatives and friends, no one will help us when death strikes us; the good and wise, clearly aware of the meaning of this, will quickly clear the path leading to tranquility.

Dhammapada.

Are you afraid of change? After all, nothing in the world is done without change. The very essence of universal nature is change. It is impossible to warm up the waters without the transformation with wood being accomplished; nutrition is impossible without changing food. All world life is nothing but change. Understand that the transformation awaiting you has exactly the same meaning, that it is only necessary by the very nature of things. We must take care of one thing, so as not to do something contrary to the true human nature, to act in everything, as and when it indicates.

Marcus Aurelius.

All true science begins with love, and not with the analysis of its fellows, and ends with love, and not with the analysis of God.

John Ruskin.

The sage said: my teaching is simple, and its meaning is easy to penetrate. It all consists in loving your neighbor as yourself.

It has already been said more than once and quite rightly that the whole difference between a genius and other people is that a genius, for the most part, remains a child, looking into the world with wide eyes, full of infinite wonder, with the consciousness not of its great significance, but of its infinite ignorance and at the same time its power.

John Ruskin.

When people are engaged in learning for themselves, learning is useful to them, but when people are doing it for others in order to appear as scientists, this learning is useless.

Chinese wisdom ("Le-Long-Yu").

Son of man! do not heed the whispering of the tempter, who will say to you: “Am I made of stone, am I made of copper, that you are placing this heavy burden on me — keeping the commandments. After all, all my days and nights will not be sufficient for the fulfillment of all this. " Know that such thoughts are the essence of the whisperings of an evil tempter, who presents you with the fulfillment of the commandments as a very difficult matter, so that you completely deviate from the truth and fall into a trap. Know also that most of the commandments are prohibitions, speaking to man just don't do it. Again, most of the remaining half are commandments about the unity of God and constant love for him and so that you do not harm your neighbor, move away from robbery, etc. Thus, the commandments are very easy to fulfill, since most of them are passive, that is, requiring only abstinence from action, and a very insignificant part are active, and the fulfillment of these is not something permanent, but accidental, periodic, such as the creation of alms, protection of the oppressed from his oppressor, which is not presented every day, but sometimes.

Talmud.

Consider all your gifts and knowledge as the means you need to help others.

The strong and wise were given his gifts not to oppress, but to guide and support the weak.

John Ruskin.

You have heard it said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend you and persecute you.

Mt. V, 43-44.

Who is the hero? - Turning your enemy into a friend.

Talmud.

Absolute justice, true, is just as unattainable as absolute truth, but a just person differs from an unjust one by his desire for justice and the hope to achieve it, just as the truthful person is from a deceitful one - by his thirst for truth and faith in it.

John Ruskin.

Honest, enthusiastic mistakes are never harmful, because they are always made in the right direction and fall in front of the road, not into the ditch behind, and therefore can always be corrected by the person following him.

John Ruskin.

The mistakes of a wise man are like eclipses of the sun and moon. When he is wrong, all people see it and see how he corrects himself.

Chinese wisdom ("Le-Long-Yu").

Self-righteous and gross ignorance will produce an imperfect but harmless one. Ignorance is dissatisfied and cunning, studying what it is unable to understand, and imitating what it cannot enjoy, produces all the most disgusting, degrading and corrupting of humanity.

John Ruskin.

Scatter nuts and gingerbread on the street - the children will come running right away, pick them up, fight among themselves. Adults won't fight over this. And the children won't pick up empty shells.

For me, money, positions, honors, fame are the same shells and children's sweets. Let the children pick them up, let them beat them and chase them because of this, let them kiss the hands of the rich, dignitaries and their servants, for me these are all shells. If by chance some nut falls into my hands, why not eat it? But bending over in order to pick him up, fighting over him, knocking someone down or falling down himself is not worth it because of such trifles.

Epictetus.

The wise man constantly rises in reason and discernment, while the insignificant man constantly sinks into ignorance and vice.

Chinese wisdom ("Le-Long-Yu").

The older people who live a spiritual life become, the more their mental horizons expand, the more their consciousness becomes clearer; the ignorant grow duller with age.

Talmud.

The weakest in the world wins over the strongest, so the advantage of humility and the benefit of silence are great. Only a few in the world can be humble.

Lao-Tse.

A man, when he lives, is gentle and flexible. When he dies, he becomes hard and dry.

All things, grass, as well as trees, are gentle and flexible as long as they live. When they die, they become stale and dry. Therefore, tough and strong are companions of death. Soft and gentle - life companions. Therefore, one who is strong with his hands will not win. When the tree is strong, it is doomed to die. Strong and large are at the bottom, tender and soft at the top.

Lao-Tse.

Retribution for fulfilling a commandment is a commandment, that is, if someone fulfills one of the commandments, the Lord opens up the opportunity for him to fulfill another, which is an important reward, for this leads to his own benefit.

Talmud.

No virtue is ever alone. She always has neighbors.

Chinese wisdom ("Le-Long-Yu").

Therefore, I say to you: do not worry about your soul, what you eat and what you drink, nor about your body, what to put on. Is not the soul more food and the body more clothes?

Behold the birds of the air; they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into the barn; and your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much better than them?

And who of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So, do not worry and do not say: what do we have? or what to drink? or what to wear?

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you.

So, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of its own: every day has enough of its own concern.

Mt. VI, 25-27, 31, 33-34.

Who, having bread in a basket, asks what I will eat tomorrow? - belongs to those of little faith.

Talmud.

From pleasure arises sorrow, from pleasure arises fear; who is free from pleasure, there is neither sadness nor fear.

Dhammapada.

People seek pleasure, rushing from side to side only because they feel the emptiness of their lives, but do not yet feel the emptiness of the new fun that attracts them.

Vlas Pascal.

Whoever fears God is not afraid of people. And whoever is afraid of people is not afraid of God.

You will not surprise people, but you will kill yourself.

To obey people - to carry water with a sieve.

Proverbs.

People who think that it's all about knowledge are like those butterflies that fly towards candles - they themselves perish and darken the light.

Great thoughts come from the heart.

Vovenarg.

Do not be afraid of ignorance, be afraid of false knowledge. From him all the evil of the world.

It is bad that people do not know God, but worst of all is that people recognize as God that which is not God.

From publishers

During Leo Tolstoy's grave illness in January 1903, when his life hung in the balance and he could not give himself up to his usual work, he still found the strength to read the Gospel and out of habit, daily tearing off the calendar in his bedroom, he read the collected there sayings of various great people. But last year's calendar came to an end, and Lev Nikolaevich, in the absence of another at hand, wanted to compose for himself excerpts from different thinkers for each day. Every day, being in bed, as far as his strength allowed, he made these extractions, and the result of this work was the book offered to the readers.

This includes selected thoughts of the following writers and sages: Epictetus, Diogenes, Marcus Aurelius, Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Lao-Tse, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine and more modern ones - Pascal, Rousseau, Spinoza, Luther, Bovenargue, Kant, Schiller, Bentham, Schopenhauer, Voltaire, Klinger, Thackeray, Dostoevsky, Bielmen, Ruskin and others.

January 1st

One winter Francis was walking with his brother Lev from Peruza to Portsionkul; it was so cold that they shivered from the cold. Francis called brother Leo, who was walking in front, and said to him: "O brother Leo, God grant that our brothers set an example of holy life throughout the earth - write, however, that this is not the perfect joy."

“And write also, brother Leo, that if our brothers heal the sick, cast out demons, make the blind see or raise the dead four days ago, write that even this will not be perfect joy.”

“Write also, brother Leo, that if our brothers knew all languages, all sciences and all the scriptures, if they prophesied not only about the future, but knew all the secrets of conscience and soul, - write down that there is no perfect joy in this either” ...

Going even further, Francis again called Leo and said: “And also write down, brother Leo, sheep of God, that if we could learn to speak in the tongues of angels, if we knew the flow of the stars and if all the treasures of the earth were revealed to us and we would know everything the secrets of the lives of birds, fish, all animals, people, trees, stones and waters - write down that this would not be perfect joy. "

Then Brother Leo said to Francis: "Where is, Brother Francis, perfect joy?"

And Francis replied: “Here's what. Is that if, when we come to Portsionkyl, we are dirty, wet, numb from the cold and hungry and ask to let us in, and the gatekeeper tells us: “What are you, vagabonds, wandering around the world, seducing people, stealing alms of poor people, get out of here ! ” - and will not open to us. And if then we are not offended and with humility and love think that the gatekeeper is right, that God Himself inspired him to do this with us, and wet, cold and hungry we will wake up in the snow and in the water until morning without a murmur against the gatekeeper, then, Brother Leo , only then will there be perfect joy. "

January 2

People find it difficult, anxious and worried only when they are busy with external affairs beyond their control. In these cases, they anxiously ask themselves: “What am I going to do? something will happen? what will come of it? how would this or that not happen? " This is the case with those who constantly care about what does not belong to them. On the contrary, a person who is busy with what depends on him and who puts his life in the work of self-improvement will not worry himself so much. If he didn’t worry about whether he will be able to hold on to the truth and avoid lies, I would say: calm down, - that which worries you is in your own hands; just look at your thoughts and deeds and try to correct yourself in every possible way. Do not say: "Something will happen?" Whatever happens, you will turn yourself into a lesson and benefit.

- What if I die fighting misfortune?

- Well, what then? In this case, you will die the death of an honest man, doing what you have to do. You still need to die, and death should find you doing something. I would be pleased if death found me doing a deed worthy of a man, a deed kind and useful to all people; or so that she finds me at a time when I try to correct myself. Then I could raise my hands to God and say to Him: “Lord! You yourself know how much I took advantage of what You gave me to understand Your laws. Have I reproached You? Did you resent what happened to me? Was he shirking his duty? I thank You for being born, for all Your gifts. I have used them enough: take them back and dispose of them as you please - they are yours! "

Whoever wants to be successful in worldly affairs does not sleep all night long, constantly fussing and fussing, forging strong people and generally acting like a vile person. And, in the end, what did he achieve with all this? He achieved that he was surrounded by some honors, that they were afraid of him and that, having become a boss, he was in charge of some actions. Do you really not want to work a little in order to free yourself from all such worries and sleep peacefully, without fear of anything and without suffering anything? Know, then, that such peace of mind does not come for free.

Epictetus

January 3

Whether our life ends with carnal death is a question of the greatest importance, and a rare person does not think about it. It depends on whether or not we believe in eternal life, and our actions will be reasonable or meaningless. Any rational action is necessarily based on the confidence in the immortality of true life.

Therefore, our first concern should be about making out and understanding what is immortal in life. Some people work hard to figure this out for themselves. They recognize that their whole life should depend on it.

Other people, although they doubt immortality, sincerely suffer from their doubt and consider it their greatest misfortune. They spare nothing, just to find out the truth, tirelessly seek it and consider it the most important thing in their life.

But there are also people who do not think about it at all. Their negligence, where it is about themselves, surprises, outrages and confuses me.

Blaise Pascal

4 January

Judge not lest ye be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you mete, it will be measured to you also. And why are you looking at the mote in your brother's eye, but you don't feel the beam in your eye? Or, as you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye; and here is a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Mt. Vii. 1-5

A person is inclined to constantly blame others: he only looks at their mistakes, but his own passions grow more and more, removing him from improvement.

Buddhist wisdom

5 January

Do not judge your neighbor until you are in his place.

Talmud

One thing we know or can know if we want, namely: that the heart and conscience of man are divine, that in the denial of evil and the recognition of good, man is himself an incarnate deity; that his joy in love, his suffering in anger, his indignation at the sight of injustice, his glory in self-sacrifice are eternal, incontrovertible evidence of his unity with the Supreme Sovereign; that in this, and not in bodily advantages and not in a greater variety of instincts, he himself is the master over the lower animate world. Because he denies or violates the dictates of the heart and conscience, because he dishonors the name of Heavenly Father, and does not sanctify His name on earth; because he follows them, he sanctifies His name and receives from the fullness of His power.

John Ruskin

January 6

He, whose faith is weak, cannot stir up faith in others.

Lao Tse

The sin of the whole world is, in essence, the sin of Judas. People do not believe in their Christ, but sell Him.

John Ruskin

Jan. 7

Whoever laid down his life in the light of reason and serves it, for this there can be no desperate situations in life, he does not know the torment of conscience, is not afraid of loneliness and does not seek a noisy society, - such has a higher life, does not run from people and does not chase them. He is not confused by thoughts about how long his spirit is imprisoned in the flesh; the actions of such a person will always be the same, even in view of the imminent death. For him, one concern is to live reasonably in peaceful communication with people.

Marcus Aurelius

January 8

The pious, people of action, say: glory to our youth, which has not disgraced our old age.

The penitents say: glory to our old age, which redeems our youth.

But those and others say: bless the one who is sinless, whoever has sinned - repent, reform, and forgive you.

Talmud

January 9

A person standing on tiptoe cannot stand for long. A person exhibiting himself cannot shine. He who is satisfied with himself cannot be glorified. The one who boasts cannot have merit. He who is proud cannot be exalted. Before the judgment of reason, such people are like garbage of food and disgust everyone. Therefore, one who has intelligence does not rely on himself.

Lao Tse

10 january

He who hates his neighbor sheds human blood, as it were.

Talmud

The one whose malice has no boundaries, the one who wrapped it around like a dodder, will soon lead himself to where only the worst enemy would like to push him.

Fresh strained milk does not sour, an evil deed does not immediately yield fruit, but, like a fire buried in warmth, it gradually burns and torments the madman.

Buddhist wisdom

Wise thoughts from L.N. Tolstoy

The need for happiness is embedded in man; therefore it is legal.

Knowledge without a moral foundation means nothing.

All thoughts that have huge consequences are always simple.

All people in the world have the same rights to enjoy the natural benefits of the world and the same rights to respect.

To make it easy to live with every person, think about what connects you, and not about what separates you.

The shortest expression of the meaning of life is this: the world is moving, improving; the task of a person is to participate in this movement, and to obey and assist him.

A person who has stopped drinking and smoking acquires that mental clarity and calmness of the look, which, from a new, correct side, illuminates for him all the phenomena of life.

One girl was asked what is the most important person, what is the most important time and what is the most important thing? And she replied, thinking that the most important person is the one with whom you are communicating at the moment, the most important time is the one in which you live now, and the most important thing is to do good to the person with whom you are dealing at any given moment.

Never bother another with what you can do yourself.

There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.

The power of one person over another destroys the ruler first of all.

A person can serve to improve social life only to the extent that he fulfills the requirements of his conscience in his life.

Pride is not at all the same as the consciousness of human dignity. Pride increases with external success, the consciousness of one's human dignity, on the contrary, with external humiliation.

Condemnation for good is the only test of the sincerity of serving good.

To believe in goodness, one must begin to do it.

Do not believe the words of yours or those of others, believe only in the deeds of yours and those of others.

The good that you do from your heart, you always do to yourself.

When doing good, be grateful for it.

Do good secretly and pity when people learn about it, and you will learn to do good with joy. Consciousness of a good life, without the approval of people for it, is the best reward of a good life.

Beware of the thought that you have virtues that others do not.

Kindness is to the soul what health is to the body: it is invisible when you own it.

Feigning kindness repels more than outright anger.

The smarter and kinder a person is, the more he notices goodness in people.

Destroy one vice and ten will disappear.

All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Most men demand virtues from their wives that they themselves are not worth.

It’s bad if a person doesn’t have something for which he is ready to die.

If life is good, then good and death, which is necessary condition life.

Do so that you still want to eat when you get up from dinner.

Physical labor improves health and encourages mental performance.

Unity is only good for man when it is the unity of all mankind in the name of a foundation common to all mankind, but not the union of small or large parts of mankind in the name of limited, private goals.

Isn't there unity with tens - separation with thousands and millions?

Unity is possible only in the truth, and in order to reach the truth, one thing is necessary: \u200b\u200bto seek it with constant, unceasing spiritual effort ... Getting together, however, will not help the cognition of the truth.

Evaluation of the dignity of art depends on people's understanding of the meaning of life, on what they see the good and what the evil of life.

Art is one of the means of distinguishing good from evil.

Aesthetics is the expression of ethics: art expresses the feelings that the artist experiences. If feelings are good, high, then art will be good, high, and vice versa. If an artist is a moral person, then his art will be moral.

There is no greater help for an egoistic, calm life than art is for art. Despot, villain must love art.

All art has two deviations from the path: vulgarity and artificiality.

It seems strange and immoral that an artist, seeing the suffering of people, does not so much sympathize as he observes in order to reproduce this suffering. And this is not immoral. The suffering of one person is an insignificant matter in comparison with the spiritual - if it is good - impact that will produce a work of art.

In an immoral society, all inventions that increase man's power over nature are not only not good, but an undoubted and obvious evil.

The undoubted sign of true science is the consciousness of the insignificance of what you know in comparison with what is revealed.

The task of science should be the knowledge of what should be, and not of what is.

Two exact sciences: mathematics and moral teaching. These sciences are accurate and unquestionable because all people have the same mind, which perceives mathematics, and the same spiritual nature, which perceives (the doctrine of life) the moral doctrine.

In order to be heard by people, one must speak from Golgotha, capture the truth with suffering, and even better - with death.

Truth cannot force a person to be unkind or overconfident. The manifestations of truth are always meek, humble and simple.

True compassion begins only when, putting yourself in the place of the suffering person in your imagination, you experience truly suffering.

Mercy consists not so much in material help as in spiritual support of a neighbor. Spiritual support is primarily in non-condemnation of one's neighbor and respect for his human dignity.

Substantial mercy is only good when it is a sacrifice. Only then does the recipient of the material gift receive the spiritual gift.

Mercy begins at home. If you need to go somewhere to show mercy, then this is hardly mercy.

What could be crazier and more painful than the situation in which the European peoples now live, spending most of their wealth in preparation for the extermination of their neighbors ...

The property of a wise person consists of three things: first, to do what he advises others to do, second, never to act against justice, and third, to patiently endure the weaknesses of the people around him.

Reasonable and moral always coincide.

In order to know what is moral, one must know what is immoral; in order to know what to do, one must know what should not be done.

The root of evil deeds is in evil thoughts.

Think well - and thoughts will ripen into good deeds.

If truth does not tell us what we should do, then it will always tell us what we should not do or should stop doing.

Lying in front of others only confuses the matter and postpones the decision; but a lie before oneself, presented as truth, ruins a person's entire life.

The most common and widespread reason for lying is the desire to deceive not people, but themselves.

The flatterer is flattering only because he has a low opinion of himself and of others.

The concept of beauty not only does not coincide with good, but rather is opposite to it, since good for the most part coincides with the victory over addictions, beauty is the basis of all our addictions.

The tenderness and delight that we experience from contemplation of nature is a memory of the time when we were animals, trees, flowers, earth. More precisely: it is the consciousness of unity with everything, hidden from us by time.

Beauty, joy, only as joy, regardless of good, is disgusting.

We must use every opportunity to bring joy to people, but people should also try to make them happy not by trifles, but by important things.

Life cannot have any other purpose, like good, like joy. Only this goal - joy - is quite worthy of life.

You must always be joyful. If the joy ends, look for where you went wrong.

Church. This whole word is the name of deception, through which some people want to rule over others.

Least of all are people who want to appear simple.

All people engaged in a truly important business are always simple, because they do not have time to come up with unnecessary things.

Nothing like simplicity brings people closer together.

Vanity is some kind of unripe love of fame, some kind of pride transferred into the opinion of others - he loves himself not as he is, but as he is shown to others.

You have to be careful about fanning your vanity with praise. Vulnerability and soreness increase tremendously.

Conscience is that supreme law of all living, which everyone is aware of in himself not only by recognizing the rights of this all living, but by love for him.

Conscience is the memory of society, assimilated by an individual.

The instructions of conscience are infallible when they demand from us not the affirmation of our animal personality, but sacrifice by it.

The voice of conscience can always be distinguished from all other spiritual motives by the fact that it always requires something useless, intangible, but beautiful and achievable by our one effort. This distinguishes the voice of conscience from the voice of popularity, which is often mixed with it.

If life does not fit according to conscience, then by stupefaction the conscience bends over life.

Often people take pride in the purity of their consciences just because they have a short memory.

The more guilty one is in front of one's own, albeit hidden, conscience, the more willingly and involuntarily one looks for the guilt of others, and especially those before whom he is guilty.

Justice is an extreme measure of virtue to which everyone is obliged. Above it are steps to perfection, below it is vice.

Nothing more truly than what a person is ashamed of and of which is not ashamed shows the degree of moral perfection at which he is.

Shame in front of people is a good feeling, but shame in front of oneself is best.

There are two kinds of happiness: the happiness of the virtuous people and the happiness of the vain people. The first comes from virtue, the second from fate.
Happiness based on vanity is destroyed by it: glory - by evil speech, wealth - by deception. Virtue-based happiness is nothing.

Happiness is pleasure without remorse.

Happiness is not always about doing what you want, but about always wanting what you do.

There are two desires, the fulfillment of which can make a person's true happiness - to be useful and to have a clear conscience.

Both what we call happiness and what we call unhappiness are equally beneficial to us if we look at both as a test.

Labor is not a virtue, but an inevitable condition for a virtuous life.

Nothing ennobles a person like labor. A person cannot maintain his human dignity without labor.

The undoubted condition for happiness is labor: first, beloved and free labor; secondly, bodily labor, giving appetite and sound, calming sleep.

Nothing encourages idleness more than idle talk. If people were silent and did not say those trifles with which they drive away from themselves the boredom of idleness, they could not bear it.

Better to do nothing than to do nothing.

It always seems that we are loved because we are good. And we don't realize that they love us because those who love us are good.

We do not love people, not because they are evil, but we consider them evil because we do not love them.

To love is to live the life of the one you love.

To love is to do good.

Love is the power of life. Love is the rule for fulfilling all the rules.

True love is not love for one person, but the state of mind of the readiness of love for all.

Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich

Thoughts of wise people for every day

"Mediator", 1903

“And write also, brother Leo, that if our brothers heal the sick, cast out demons, make the blind see or raise the dead four days ago, write that even this will not be perfect joy.”

Then Brother Leo said to Francis: "Where is, Brother Francis, perfect joy?"

- What if I die fighting misfortune?

(Epictetus)

But there are also people who do not think about it at all. Their negligence, where it is about themselves, surprises, outrages and frightens me.

(Vlas Pascal)

(Mm. VII, 1-5)

A person is inclined to constantly blame others: he only looks at their mistakes, but his own passions grow more and more, removing him from improvement.

(Buddhist wisdom)

Do not judge your neighbor until you are in his place.

(Talmud)

(John Ruskin)

He, whose faith is weak, cannot stir up faith in others.

(Lao-Tse)

The sin of the whole world is, in essence, the sin of Judas. People do not believe in their Christ, but sell Him.

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