#37: Wisdom Quotes
Below are quotes that resonate, from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘A Calendar Of Wisdom’.
[1]
Wisdom is the knowledge of the application of eternal truths to life. – Tolstoy
[2]
A scholar knows many thing, but for most part things of an unnecessary and dubious nature. The wise man, on the other hand, knows only a few things, but everything he does know is essential for him and others, and everything he does knows he knows for certain. – Tolstoy
[3]
The blessings conferred by wisdom, in comparison with all other forms of knowledge, are as important as a container of water in the desert when compared with a whole mass of gold. – Tolstoy
[4]
Charity begins at home. If you need to go elsewhere to manifest charity then it hardly deserves the name of charity. – Tolstoy
[5]
Adults may well tell children that they should not be cruel to animals or, more generally, to all defenceless creatures. But a young child only has to go into the kitchen to see dead and plucked chickens and geese. What is the point of inflicting on children these wonderful reasoned moral arguments when they can see for themselves adults indulging in behaviour that is so clearly at odds with that they have been told? – Struve, The Foundations of a New Worldview
[6]
We lack the knowledge to be able to understand fully even the human body. Just think what we would need in order to do this: the human body needs space, time, movement, warmth, light, food, water, air and much else besides. In nature everything is so closely linked together that it is impossible to understand the part, without understanding the whole. We will be able to understand the body fully when we have studied everything we need to know; and, for that, we need to study the entire universe. But the universe is infinite, and knowledge of it is beyond out intellectual capabilities. – Pascal, Thoughts
[7]
The study of any scientific subject which is not necessary for our physical life, such as astronomy, mathematics, or physics etc., is the same as partaking in idle pleasures such as games, boating, riding or going for a stroll. Such pastimes are possible when they do not prevent us from doing our duty. But it is immoral to spend time on any scientific work that does not truly promote the spiritual good of mankind. – Tolstoy
[8]
Those people who preach morality and who confine our obligations to our families and our country, are encouraging a form of egoism that can vary in scale but which is nevertheless harmful to us and to others. One’s family and one’s country represent two circles that are part of a wider circle – the whole of mankind. They represent two levels through which we need to pass, but at which we must not stop. – Mazzini, DM
[9]
The past has gone and the future is yet to come. The present is an infinitely small point of contact between the non-existent past and the non-existent future. And it is this infinitely small point that marks our true existence… Time does not exist; there is merely an infinitesimally small present for the process of life to take place, and it is on this alone that we should concentrate all our spiritual powers. – Tolstoy
[10]
‘Time passes!’ we often hear people say. There is no such thing as time; we are the ones who are moving. – The Talmud