Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
Be as you are, so long as you feel your conscience is at peace, that you are at peace with yourself, and that you are in the place you should be, Be what you should be, and leave the rest to God. And even if there is no God of love, but simply a law of duty, that duty would still be the solution to the riddle. – Amiel, PJ
[2]
People say that equality is impossible because there will always be come people who are stronger and cleverer than others. But, as Lichtenberg says, it is precisely because of this – the fact that some people are stronger and cleverer than others – that equality of rights among people is so important and essential. The oppression of the weak y the strong is so horrible these days precisely because the inequality of intellect and strength goes hand in hand with inequality of rights. – Tolstoy
[3]
Even the most outstanding of talents can be ruined by idleness. – Montaigne, Essays
[4]
Justice demands that we take from others no more than what we are able to give them. But we are not able to weigh up what we are able to do in comparison with what others are able to do for us. And, besides, we could at any moment be deprived of our ability to work and become dependent on what other people can do for us. In that case, to avoid injustice, we should strive to give to others more than we take from them. – Tolstoy
[5]
At one time people used to eat one another. Then they stopped doing that but continued to eat animals. Now the time has come when more and more people are giving up this horrible habit. – Tolstoy
[6]
A traveller once went up to some African cannibals as they were engaged in eating some meat. When he asked them what they were eating, they replied that is was human flesh.
“How can you possibly eat that?” the traveller shouted. “Why shouldn’t we? It’s very tasty with salt,” the Africans replied. They had become so used to doing this that they could not even understand what the traveller was so agitated about.
In a very similar way, meat-eaters are unable to understand the indignation of vegetarians when they see pigs, lambs and bullocks being eaten only because their meat tastes good with salt. – After Lucy Mallory
[7]
Do not let yourself be upset by the fact that when you refuse to eat meat those close to you attack you, criticize you and laugh at you. If the eating of meat were something totally neutral, meat-eaters would not attack vegetarians; they get irritated only because they already know they are doing something wrong, but are unable to free themselves of the habit. – Tolstoy
[8]
Therefore, in order to speak the truth, you must learn how to do it. And in order to learn how to do it, you must speak the truth in everything you say, no matter how trivial the subject. – Tolstoy
[9]
We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that we frequently become disguised to ourselves. – La Rochefoucauld, Maxims
[10]
It is better for a stupid man to remain silent. But if he knew that, then he wouldn’t be a stupid man. – Saadi, Gulistan