It is difficult if not impossible to find some reasonable limit for acquiring more and more property.
—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
You should acquire the kind of wealth which cannot be stolen from you by thieves, which people in power cannot take from you, which will stay with you even after your death, never diminishing and never disappearing. This wealth is your soul.
—INDIAN PROVERB
There are two ways not to suffer from poverty. The first is to acquire more wealth. The second is to limit your requirements. The first is not always within our power, but the second is always in our power.
October 4
Real love refers not just to love for a particular person but to the spiritual state of loving everyone.
To love means to live within the lives of those whom you love.
Do not force others to love you; just love others, and you will be loved.
A holy person lives in the world, but he is concerned most of all about his attitude to people. He can feel all people, and he can sense all people, and all people turn their ears and eyes to him.
—LAO-TZU
Without love nothing can bring you goodness, and every action inspired with love, even if it seems small and unimportant, will bring you some fruits afterward.
—From the BOOK OF DIVINE THOUGHTS
Religion is the highest form of love.
—THEODORE PARKER
The more a person expresses his love, the more people love him; and the more people love him, the easier it is for him to love others. In this way, love is eternal.
October 5
Your spirit must constantly assert itself because your body is constantly exerting itself. As soon as you stop working at your spirit, then your body will have complete power over you.
What is not clear should be cleared up. What is not easy to do should be done with great persistence.
—CONFUCIUS
We suffer from our vices, and try to struggle with them, and the reason for this struggle is that we are not perfect. But our salvation is in this struggle with vices, and if God were to take away our ability to fight our vices, then we would be left with them forever.
—BLAISE PASCAL
A good thing is always done with an effort, and when the effort is repeated several times, then a good thing becomes a habit.
Do not detest any action which helps you to achieve good, or even more importantly—which can prevent you from doing evil.
October 6
Illness should be viewed as a natural condition of life.
Neglecting your health can prevent you from serving people, and too much attention to your body and its health can bring the same results. In order to find the middle way, you should take care of your body only to the extent that doing so helps you to serve others, and does not stop you from serving them.
No illness can prevent a person from what he has to do. If you cannot work, then give your love to people.
Illnesses of the mind are much more dangerous than illnesses of the body.
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
Do not be afraid of illness, and do not think that being ill frees you from your moral requirements.
October 7
You can call God by various names, you can avoid his name altogether, but you cannot avoid accepting his existence. Nothing exists here if God does not exist.
All I know I know because there is God, and I know Him because He gives me the knowledge of everything.
Let us think about God, remember Him, and talk to Him as often as we can.
—EPICTETUS
God is not an idol; he is an ideal which we should strive for in our everyday life.
—LUCY MALLORY
It is very important to remember God, not necessarily with words, but in the sense of being aware of Him following your actions, supporting them or criticizing them. Russian peasants have a saying: “Do you remember God?”
October 8
Only people who have never thought about life’s most important issues can believe that everything is possible for the human intellect.
There are three types of people. First, there are people who do not believe in anything; then, there are people who believe only in those teachings they were brought up to believe. Finally, there are people who believe in those things which they understand with their hearts, and this last group of people is the wisest and most resolute.
All beginnings are mysteries, the mystery of creation.
—HENRI AMIEL
Contemporary science cannot teach you about God and His virtues. The sciences cannot make you virtuous, but they help you on your way.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
Do not pretend to understand something that you do not. It is one of the worst possible things to do.
October 9
A person who comes into an understanding of the life of his spiritual self cannot fear evil, either in life or in death.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
—JOHN 3:6-8
The souls of wise people look to the future state of their existence; all of their thoughts are concentrated toward eternity.
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
There is not a single soul that can be good without God.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
Salvation in all things lies in their spirituality. Evil cannot touch a person who knows his spirituality.
October 10
A man is both an animal and a spiritual being at the same time. As an animal, a man is afraid of death; as a spiritual being he does not experience death.
In the last moments before death, the soul leaves the body. It unites with the limitless, timeless, and eternal soul and transforms into another form, we know not which. After death, our body is left behind, and it becomes only an object for observation.
Death marks a change, it marks the disappearance of the dwelling place of your conscience. The conscience itself cannot be destroyed by death, in the same way as the change of a theater set cannot destroy a spectator.
Perhaps you fear the changes that death will bring?
But a similar great change already happened at the time of your birth, and nothing bad came out of it.
October 11
Most people are proud, not of those things which arouse respect, but of those which are unnecessary, or even harmfuclass="underline" fame, power, and wealth.
There is no worse scoundrel than he who, when he looks around himself at other people, can always find an even worse scoundrel than himself; and therefore, can be quite satisfied with himself.
A person who loves himself has the advantage of having very few competitors.
There is no wisdom in he who thinks that he is wise.
A selfish person is always limited. And one is connected with the other: he is selfish because he is limited; he is limited because he is selfish.
A proud person initially causes other people to think that he has more importance than he actually has, but when this influence disappears, as it always does, he becomes only the object of jokes.