—PLUTARCH
If it were not so blindly accepted as a part of our customs and traditions, how could any sensitive person accept the thought that in order to feed ourselves we should kill such a huge number of animals, in spite of the fact that our earth gives us so many different treasures from plants?
There is a big difference between, on the one hand, a person who does not have access to any food except meat, and on the other, an educated person of today who lives in a country which has vegetables and milk in abundance, and who is instructed against meat eating. The educated person sins greatly if he continues to behave in a way he knows is wrong.
September 25
Work is not a virtue, but it is the necessary condition of a virtuous life.
Hurried work done in irritation attracts the unfavorable attention of others. Real work is always quiet, constant, and inconspicuous.
It is not enough to be a hardworking person. Think: what do you work at?
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
For every idle person, there is another person who works too much. For every person who eats to excess, there is another person somewhere who is hungry.
Much of the activity of idle people who pretend that they are busy with work is merely entertaining; it just adds a burden to other people. This can be said of all luxuriant entertainments.
September 26
All true wisdom and all true faith are clearly expressed in the same moral law.
All the world is subject to one law, and all thinking beings have the same basic intellect. Therefore, all wise men share the same idea of perfection.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
The more I dedicate my time to two things, the more they fill my life with ever-increasing pleasure. The first is the sky above me, and the second is the moral law within me.
—IMMANUEL KANT
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
—MATTHEW 7:12
Moral law is so obvious and clear that even people who do not know the law have no excuse for violating it. They have only one recourse: to deny their intellect, which they do.
September 27
Blaming others is an entertainment which some people like and cannot restrain themselves from. When you see all the harm this blaming causes, you see that it is a sin not to stop people from practicing this entertainment.
If you want to blame me, you should not be with me. You should be inside me.
—ADAM MICKIEWICZ
Truth is achieved through discussion, but the wiser man stops the arguments.
Our greatest imperfections are in our inner vision. We are so shortsighted that we cannot see bad things in others, but we cannot find bad things in ourselves as well.
—EDWARD BROWN
As soon as you start blaming a person, stop yourself. Remember not to say something bad about someone, even if you know it to be true, and especially if you are not certain but are only repeating gossip.
September 28
Most people act, not according to their meditations, and not according to their feelings, but as if hypnotized, based on some senseless repetition of patterns.
You should be brave enough to use your own intellect, in life and in your education.
—IMMANUEL KANT
If, among the many voices which speak in my soul, I could only recognize my soul’s true voice, then I would never make mistakes, and never do evil. This is why it is necessary to know yourself.
If you see that you are not behaving according to your inner desires, but because of some outer influence, stop and consider whether what drives you is good or bad.
September 29
Worse than all the troubles and horrors of war is the perversion of minds it causes. Armies exist and the cost of war exists, and people must wrestle to find explanations for what exists. War cannot be explained with the intellect, so to justify it, people create intellectual perversions.
Is there anything more absurd than a person having a right to kill me because we live on two opposite banks of the river, and our kings quarrel with each other?
—BLAISE PASCAL
The time will come when people will understand the stupidities of war.
—CHARLES RICHE
European countries have about four million people serving in the army. Two thirds of their budget are spent on military spending.
—GUSTAVE DE MOLINARI
Do not try to justify war or the existence of the military. If you try to apply logical thought to explain things that are evil, the effort will only prevent your intellect and poison your heart.
September 30
The more lonely a person is, the more clearly he can hear the voice of God.
The will to accomplish your good intentions depends on whether you voice them. You remember the things of which you spoke in your youth as if they were flowers that you tore out of a flower bed and threw away, and then saw lying on the earth, faded into the dirt.
In the important questions of life, we are always alone. Our deepest inner thoughts cannot be understood by others. The best part of the drama that goes on deep in our soul is a monologue, or, better to say, a very sincere conversation between God, our conscience, and ourself.
—HENRI AMIEL
Temporary solitude from all things in this life, the meditation within yourself about the divine, is food as necessary for your soul as material food is for your body.
October 1
A sage is not afraid of lack of knowledge: he is not afraid of hesitations, or hard work, but he is afraid of only one thing—to pretend to know the things which he does not know.
You should study more to understand that you know little.
—MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
Never be ashamed to admit what you do not know.
—ARABIC PROVERB
Put everything to the test, holdfast to that which is good.
—I THESSALONIANS 5:21
Real wisdom comes, not from knowing what is good and what should be done, but from knowing which is the better thing and which is the worse, and therefore, what should be done and what should be done later.
To be wise one must study both good and bad thoughts and acts, but one should study the bad first. You should first know what is
not
clever, what is
not
just, and what is
not
necessary to do.
October 2
Religion is that which tells a person who he is and what the nature of the world in which he lives is.
We should teach our children those principles that are common to all religions—Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and so on, that is, for the moral science of love and the unification of all people.
Most people do not listen to God but adore him. It is better not to adore but to listen.
Moral teaching is not complete if it is not religious, but religious teaching is useless if it is not based on morality, that is, if it does not lead to a good life.
October 3
Big wealth will not give you satisfaction. The more your wealth grows, the more your requirements grow with it.