Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
A rich man has a house of fifteen room for three people, but he is unable to welcome a beggar into his house to warm himself and spend the night, A peasant has a tiny hut with a single room for seven people but he willingly welcomes a stranger into his hut. – Tolstoy
[2]
What a pity if we do not live this short time according to the laws of the long time – the eternal laws. – Thoreau, Letter to Harrison Blake, 10th August 1849
[3]
The awareness that we are subject to human laws enslaves us; the awareness that we are subject to the divine law liberates us. – Tolstoy
[4]
If you do not allow your ‘soul’ to be overwhelmed by the flesh, and if you subordinate your body to the spirit, you will have fulfilled your purpose, and you will be able to live your life in joy. – After Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
[5]
Life without awareness of death, and life with awareness that with each passing hour death is coming closer – these are two totally different states. – Tolstoy
[6]
The more we transfer our lives from the sphere of the physical into the sphere of the spiritual the less fearsome the idea of death becomes. For someone who lives a completely spiritual existence, such fear becomes impossible. – Tolstoy
[7]
The truly virtuous person will try to continue along a straight line until the very end. To only go halfway along and then weaken – that is what we should fear. – Chinese proverb
[8]
Virtue in someone should have the characteristic of a precious stone, which invariably retains its natural beauty, no matter what happens to it. – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
[9]
People don’t change simply because their houses have been whitewashed. They will not become better people because they have been given access to more pleasures and material comforts. The ‘soul’ creates its own body. Only thoughts can create a sufficiently worthy place for us in which we can live. – Mazzini, DM
[10]
If he should want to rid himself of all his hardships and unhappiness, he must take stock of his life. He must become aware of what is truly good in life. And what is truly good is that, at every single stage in life, he must act according to the laws of truth and goodness that are inscribed within each of us. Only by doing this will he become truly free and receive those blessings of life for which every human heart yearns. – After Epictetus, Discourses