#28: Wisdom Quotes
Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
To disabuse people of their errors means to add something rather than to take something away from them. To unmask an untruth means to propagate the truth; the knowledge that something purports to be true is in fact false, is a truth. Fallacies are always harmful. Sooner or later, they will harm those who consider them to be true. – Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the World
[2]
Doubts strengthen rather than destroy faith. – Tolstoy
[3]
[W]hen we are at the theatre, we can forget where we are and believe that what we are seeing on stage is actually real, and we are frightened by what we see. The same thing happens in life. But when during such illusory moments, the religious person know that, whatever is happening in his bodily life, it cannot take away the blessings of his real spiritual life. – Tolstoy
[4]
The essence of life lies not in the body, but in one’s awareness. – Tolstoy
[5]
We cannot stop the birds from flying over our heads, but we can stop them from nesting in them. Just in the same way, we cannot prevent sinful thoughts flashing through our heads, but we can deny them any possibility of making their nest there and hatching and producing sinful deeds. – Martin Luthur, ‘Faith Alone’
[6]
Thoughts are like guests; we are not responsible for their first visit. But they will visit us more and more frequently if we encourage them to do so. Whatever it is you are thinking today, you will do tomorrow. – Tolstoy
[7]
Death means the extinction of the glass through which I have been able to view the world. But the extinction of the glass does not in any way include that of the eyes. – Tolstoy
[8]
Do not place the burden of anything you can do yourself onto other people. Let each of us sweep outside our own front door; if we all do that, then the entire street will be clean. – Tolstoy
[9]
It is as difficult for good people to assume that other people are evil as it is for evil people to assume that other people are good. – Tolstoy
[10]
You should not judge simply from what someone has said, what he might do in actual fact. And on the other hand, it is very difficult to judge simply from what someone has done, what motivated him to do it, and what he was thinking at the time. – Epictetus, Ethics