—THOMAS CARLYLE
All people, from the first, and without any judicial act, should possess the earth. They should be able to live where nature and chance have brought them.
—IMMANUEL KANT
The possession of land as property is one of the most unnatural crimes there is. We cannot see the horror of this crime because in our world it is accepted as law.
November 13
Self-perfection should be one’s primary motivation. If you are truthful to yourself, you will never be satisfied with yourself.
A person should always develop his ability to do goodness. Make yourself better; this should be every person’s goal.
—IMMANUEL KANT
The first rule of achieving goodness is this: think only about self-perfection, and do so without thought to being praised by others.
—CHINESE WISDOM
He who moves from doing bad deeds to doing good deeds enlightens this world like the moon coming out from behind the clouds. This is the best thing in the world; this is the first step toward divinity.
—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM
Those who live life in perfection look only forward; those who have stopped moving forward look back on their achievements.
Dissatisfaction is a necessary condition of intellectual life. It is only this dissatisfaction that pushes you to work.
November 14
The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.
It is harmful to eat if you are not hungry. It is even worse to have sex if you lack desire. But even more harmful is to try to think when you do not wish to, or to be engaged in meaningless intellectual activity. Many people do so when they want to improve their position.
Your will is not good until you have changed the habits of your intellect, and they will improve only when they follow the eternal laws of life.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
Only those who have real knowledge know what to do.
—INDIAN WISDOM
What is important in knowledge is not quantity, but quality. It is important to know what knowledge is significant, what is less so, and what is trivial.
November 15
The joy of wealth is inconstant.
Wherever your heart is, there will be your treasure. The heart of a person whose major treasure is wealth is buried in filth.
—SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
Is it true that people were created to collect more and more gold? No. God created people after His own image; He created you so that you could fulfill his will.
Why should a person be rich? Why should he have expensive horses, rich clothes, wonderful rooms, and the leisure to visit public places of entertainment? Because he does not have enough thoughts to accompany his intellect. Give this person the inner work of his intellect, and he will be happier than the richest man.
—RALPH WALDO EMERSON
For those who live a spiritual life, wealth is not only unnecessary but uncomfortable. It stops the development of one’s real life.
November 16
Faith answers those questions to which the intellect cannot find answers, but which must be asked.
There is only one true religion, though there are many different faiths.
—IMMANUEL KANT
It is only faith which creates the powerful convictions, the energy, and the unity which can cure society.
—GIUSEPPE MAZZINI
We have only one sinless guide, a universal spirit which gets into all of us though we are all individuals, and which gives us the urge to do all that is necessary. The same spirit which exists in a tree and pushes it to grow straight and to produce seeds exists in us, urges us to be closer to God, and brings us closer to each other.
When a person is alive, he believes; the closer his faith is to the truth, the happier his life. The further from the truth his faith is, the more unhappy he is.
Without faith he does not live; he dies a premature death or else kills himself.
November 17
We suffer from the past, and we spoil our future because we neglect the present.
The best the future can offer is dreams. There is only one thing which really exists: the present.
Be attentive to the present. Only in the present time can we understand eternity.
—After JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Use your body, your vessel, today; tomorrow it can be broken.
—The TALMUD
There is no past and no future; no one has ever entered those two imaginary kingdoms. There is only the present. Do not worry about the future, because there is no future. Live in the present and for the present, and if your present is good, then it is good forever.
If you have difficult times, if you suffer from the loss of loved ones or from fears about the future, remember that life exists only in the present and direct all your thoughts and memories to this present. All your anguish about the past and your worries about the future will disappear, and you will feel freedom and happiness.
November 18
You cannot measure good by either the feeling of need or sacrifice, but only by the communication with God which is established between the giver and the receiver.
Life alone is not good. Goodness exists only in a proper, virtuous life.
—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
It is not a virtue, but a kind of deceitful similitude, to fulfill our duty for the purpose of its reward.
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
All people become closer, more or less, to one of two opposite limits: one is life only for oneself, and the other is life only for God.
I call this life a happy one in which I do one good deed after another, with no intervals between them.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
We do good only when we do not notice what we do, when we forget ourselves and live only in others.
November 19
A material evil done by a person does not return to the evildoer, but the evil feeling which was created by the sinful deed will fester in his soul and sooner or later make him suffer.
If in the morning a person wants to do evil unto others, evil will return to him by nightfall.
—INDIAN WISDOM
The evildoer harms himself first, before he harms others.
—SAINT AUGUSTINE
Every man becomes what he teaches others to be. Those who gain victory over themselves will gain victory over others. It is most difficult to achieve victory over oneself. Every man has power only over himself.
—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM
There is no material goodness which can restore the soul after the damage done by the evil which you create.
November 20
Remember: Those who suffer through to the end will be saved. Very often a person becomes desperate or even stops in his purpose when only a small effort is needed to achieve it.
But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.