Kind people are never involved in arguments, and those who like to argue are never kind. Truthful words are not always pleasant, and pleasant words are not necessarily truthful.
—LAO-TZU
If you want to be a clever person, you have to learn how to ask cleverly, how to listen attentively, how to respond quietly, and how to stop talking when there is nothing more to say.
Many stupid things are uttered by people whose only motivation is to say something original.
—VOLTAIRE
If you have time to think before you start talking, think, Is it necessary to speak? Will what I have to say harm anyone?
February 27
A charity is only then a real charity when it involves sacrifice.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
—JAMES 5:3
In money—in the money itself, in its acquisition, in its possession—there is something immoral.
A truly kind person cannot be rich. A rich person, without question, is not a kind one.
—CHINESE PROVERB
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
—MATTHEW 19:23-24
February 28
Art is one of the means of unifying people.
If beautiful art does not express moral ideas, ideas which unite people, then it is not art, but only entertainment. People need to be entertained in order to distance themselves from disappointment in their lives.
—IMMANUEL KANT
It is possible to imagine that art could die, but it is not possible to imagine that real art could live if it became a slave of wealth that laughed at the poor.
Art is one of the most powerful means of convincing people of anything, both good and bad; therefore, you must be very careful in its use.
An artist is one of two things: he is either a high priest, or a more or less smart entertainer.
—GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
Meditations or discussions about art are the most useless pastimes known. Those who really know art know that art can speak well with its own language, and that to speak about art with words is useless. Most people who speak about art do not understand or feel real art.
February 29
To move, you must know where to go, in terms both of everyday motion and of your whole life. In order to live a good life, you must know where life leads.
Perfection is of God. To wish for perfection is of man.
—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Life is not given to us that we might live idly without work. No, our life is a struggle and a journey. Good should struggle with evil; truth should struggle with falsehood; freedom should struggle with slavery; love should struggle with hatred. Life is movement, a walk along the way of life to the fulfillment of those ideas which illuminate us, both in our intellect and in our hearts, with divine light.
—After GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
The ideal is within you, and the obstacle to reaching this ideal is also within you. You already possess all the material from which to create your ideal self.
—THOMAS CARLYLE
We should believe that the goodness which exists in us and in this world will be fulfilled. This is the major condition to make it happen.
March 1
The fear of death in man is the understanding of his sins.
The more spiritual a life a person leads, the less he is afraid of death. For a spiritual person death means setting the spirit free from the body. Such a person knows that the things with which he lives cannot be destroyed.
Only those who do not live are not afraid of death.
If as Socrates said, death is the state in which we abide during our sleep made permanent, we all know this state, and know there is nothing terrible in it. And if death is a transfer to a better life, as many people think, then death is not evil but a blessing.
We should get ready for death, because it will come, sooner or later. The best thing to do is to live a good life. If you live a good life, you should not be afraid of death.
March 2
The more closely a person unites with the will of God, the firmer this person becomes in his actions.
When a traveler starts on a trip along a road which is under the threat of robbers, he does not go alone. He waits for a friend, someone to be his escort, and then he follows him and so is protected from robbers. A wise man lives his life the same way. But there are so many troubles in this world. How can we stand all of them? What kind of a friend or escort will we find on our way, so that we may pass through our lives without fear? Where should we turn? There is only one answer, only one real friend. That is God.
If you follow God everywhere, you will steer clear of trouble. To follow God is to want what He wants, and not to want what He does not want. How to achieve this? You have to understand and follow His laws.
—After EPICTETUS
Do not wish for too much, nor think that the things you wish for are the only right or necessary things. You should wish only for those things for which God wishes.
—HENRI AMIEL
The right path in life is very narrow, but it is important to find it. You can understand it, as well as we can understand it, as a walkway of wood built across a swamp; if you step off it, you will plunge into the swamp of misunderstanding and evil. A wise man returns to the true path at once, but a weak man plunges further and further into the swamp, and it becomes more and more difficult for him to get out.
March 3
What reward should a good deed bring you? Only the joy you receive by performing it. And any other reward lessens the feeling of this joy.
He who does good to others makes the biggest gift to himself.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
A saint prayed to God in the following way: “O God, please be kind to evil people as much as you are to kind people. Kind people already feel good, because they are kind.”
—MUSLIH-UD-DIN SAADI
If you do good and ask for a reward, you weaken the force of your goodness.
—From the BOOK OF DIVINE THOUGHTS
Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
—MATTHEW 6:3
What a joy it is to do a good deed! And this joy is strongest if no one knows that you have done it.
March 4
Eating to excess is a vice just as bad as many others. We often do not notice it in others, because most of us are subject to it.
There are sins against others, and sins against yourself. You commit sins against others when you do not respect God’s spirit in them; you commit sins against yourself when you do not respect God’s spirit in yourself. One of the most common sins against yourself is gluttony.
A person who overeats cannot fight laziness; and a lazy man cannot fight sexual dissipation. All spiritual teachings start with restrictions, with control of the appetite.
God gave food to people, and the devil gave cooks.
Socrates, a wise man, tried to abstain from all unnecessary things. He said that food should serve you in fighting your hunger, and not in developing sophisticated tastes, and he asked his students to follow his rule. He reminded his students about the wise Odysseus, whom Circe, an evil sorceress, could not subject to her magic, because he did not eat to excess. But the members of his crew, his friends, were turned into a herd of pigs by her as soon as they rushed to the abundance of sweet food.