Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
The rational and the moral always coincide. – Tolstoy
[2]
Even if a self-assured person were to be associated with a sage for his entire life, he would be as unlikely to get to know the truth as a spoon would recognize the taste of the food it is placing in someone’s mouth. – Eastern wisdom
[3]
The more severely and pitilessly you judge yourself, the fairer and the more generous will your judgement of others. – Confucius
[4]
People talk about the traditions handed down by moral teachings or by religion, as if they were two separate guides for people to live their lives. But in reality there is only one guide – our conscience, because it is only our conscience which can accept or reject moral and religious teaching. – Tolstoy
[5]
There was a time when people ate human flesh without thinking that they were doing anything wrong, and such primitive people still exist even today. But people who eat human flesh are gradually dying out. And in just the same way, people are slowly beginning to stop eating the meat of animals. The time will very soon come when people will find the idea of eating the meat of animals as repellent as eating that of human. – After Lamartine, ‘A Shameful Human Infirmary’
[6]
If you see children taking pleasure in tormenting a kitten or a little bird you will stop them and induce in them a sense of compassion for living creatures. But then you yourself indulge in hunting, shooting pigeons, or horse-racing, and you sit down for a meal at which several living creatures have been slaughtered – that is to say, you do exactly the same thing you have told children not to do. Surely such blatant contradiction must become clear, and then people will stop behaving in this way. – Tolstoy
[7]
Whenever you are laid low by suffering, do not think so much about how you can rid yourself of it, but rather about the efforts that it is demanding you make in order to improve yourself. – Tolstoy
[8]
True religion is the same for all people. – Tolstoy
[9]
Do not be afraid of uncertainty and doubt; use your reason to examine fearlessly the claims of faith that you are being offered. – Tolstoy
[10]
If people do evil, they do it to themselves; they cannot do evil to you. – Epictetus, Discourses