#18: Wisdom Quotes
Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
Everybody knows the feeling which transcends all the contradictions of our life on earth and which imbues in us the greatest blessing; the feeling is love. – Tolstoy
[2]
There is nothing that can remove the sting from a poisoned wound like the balsam of wordless and gracious charitable love. Why allow yourself to be irritated by human malice, ingratitude, envy, even deviousness? There will be no end to the squabbling, the complaints or the retributions. The simplest thing to do is to wipe the slate clean. Insults, reproaches, outbursts of anger perturb the soul. We need to be able to heal ourselves of such evils. In the material world everything is purified by fire; in the spiritual world, by love. – Amiel, PJ
[3]
Love brings people out of themselves, out of their sense of self; if therefore, someone is suffering, such suffering will be eliminated by love. – Tolstoy
[4]
It is a mistake to think that knowledge about a lot of things is a virtue. What is important is the quality, not the quantity, of what you know. – Tolstoy
[5]
Although Socrates considered stupidity to be incompatible with wisdom, he never considered ignorance to be stupidity. But not to know yourself and to pretend that you know things that you in fact don’t know – that he considered to be lunacy. – Xenophon, Memorabilia
[6]
It is not possible to cite the existing order of things as justification for our behaviour. The existing order of things is not fixed, but subject to constant change and improvement. And such change can only be achieved by showing our dissatisfaction with the existing order. – Tolstoy
[7]
If you want people to stop doing something or other, tell them to start talking about whatever it is they are intending to do. The more people talk, the less likely they are to do anything. – Tolstoy
[8]
Those who are skilled in their dealings with others are by their nature unassuming people; this is known as the virtue of non-resistance, and is in harmony with Heaven. – Lao-tzu
[9]
The truly useful, the truly good, and therefore the truly great, is always simple. – Tolstoy
[10]
We need very little in order to feed, clothe and house ourselves. We only acquire anything else if we want slavishly to follow other people’s tastes or to outshine other people. – Eastern wisdom