#23: Wisdom Quotes
Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
Everything is on one’s thoughts; thoughts lie at the basis of everything. And it is possible to correct one’s thoughts. And therefore, in so far as the question of our self-improvement is concerned, we must concentrate above all on what we are thinking. – Tolstoy
[2]
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
[3]
A wise man was once asked which time in life was the most important, which person was the most important and what was the most important thing we could do in life was.
The wise man replied: ‘There is only one important time. And that is the present, since it is only then that people are in control of their lives.
‘The most important person is the one you are dealing with at this present moment, because nobody can know whether he will ever be able to have dealings with anyone else.
‘And the most important thing you can do is to love this person, since we have been sent into this life to love all people.’ – Tolstoy
[4]
Our first and most common temptation is to prepare for life rather than to actually live it.
‘For the moment I can put off doing something demanded of me by my inner spirit, because I am not yet ready for it. But as soon as the time comes for me to be ready, I shall begin living in total agreement with my conscience.’
This reasoning is false, because we are putting off doing something in the present, whereas the future is not in our control. – Tolstoy
[5]
If something unpleasant happens to us, or if we find ourselves in some kind of difficulty, we are all inclined to blame other people or our fate, instead of realizing that if something outside us and independent of us is unpleasant or causes us difficulties, that means that there is something in ourselves that is not as it should be. – Epictetus, Discourses
[6]
We ask other people or God for help, but nobody can help us apart from ourselves, because the only thing that can help us is to love an upright life. And only we can do this. – Tolstoy
[7]
To live wisely means to live a life based on reason, even though such a life will be criticized by everybody. – Tolstoy
[8]
Do not worry how many friends you have, but ask yourself what kind of people they are. We find if flattering to be liked by disagreeable people. – Seneca, MLL
[9]
Violence which leads to some pale imitation of justice only removes the possibility of people living justly without resorting to violence. Tolstoy
[10]
Happiness is pleasure in the absence of remorse. – Tolstoy