Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
Manual labour is useful precisely because it frees us of empty talk. – Tolstoy
[2]
A dumb man’s tongue is better than a liar’s. – Turkish proverb
[3]
If the fine arts are not imbued with moral ideals that are common to the whole of mankind – ideals which alone are capable of uniting all people – then they can serve merely as frivolous entertainment to which people resort in accordance with their wishes, so as to deaden their discontent with themselves. Yet, in doing this, they become even more useless and even more discontented with themselves. – Kant, CJ
[4]
The path towards a good life is a narrow one, but it is easy to recognize. We will know it as easily as the pathway of planks that has been laid across a swap. As soon as you fall off one side or the other, you will find yourself in the swamp of irrationality and evil. The rational man who steps into the swamp will immediately return to the planks, whereas the irrational man will become more and more bogged down in the swamp and he will find it more and more difficult to extricate himself from it. – Tolstoy
[5]
The one who performs a good deed for someone else will, more than anything, do a good deed for himself – not in the sense that he will be rewarded for it, but in the sense that the awareness of what he has done will bring him great joy. – Seneca, On Happiness
[6]
To do good and to ask for a reward is to negate the act and the force of the good. – From Pious Thoughts
[7]
Doing good brings great happiness. The sense of happiness increases when you know nobody knows what you have done. – Tolstoy
[8]
Gluttony is the most common vice. We take do little notice of it only because practically everyone indulges in it. – Tolstoy
[9]
If you want other people to praise you then you should stop praising yourself. – Pascal, Thoughts
[10]
Hard work, the practice of one’s skills, is a necessary condition of life. A person might be able to force other people to do things that he needs done, but he cannot free himself from the physical necessity of work. Unless he is working at some rational and necessary task, he will work at something that is stupid and unnecessary. – Tolstoy