As soon as a person truly looks at himself as only a physical body, then he sees an unsolved puzzle, a contradiction that cannot be unraveled.
In order to understand the true essence of a thing we must transform the physical into the spiritual.
December 28
Science is vitally important when it is harnessed to reveal the law of human life.
In order to accept the importance of science, we must prove that this activity is useful. Scientists usually demonstrate that they are doing something and that maybe sometime, someday, this could be useful for people in the future.
The universe is limitless, and impossible for anyone to understand. Therefore, we cannot completely understand the life of our own body.
—BLAISE PASCAL
“Science” is not quite the concept which people use this word to identify; it is the highest, most important, most necessary object of our understanding.
December 29
As long as there is violence, there will be war. One cannot defeat violence with more violence, only with nonresistance to and nonparticipation in it.
—LETURNO
If my soldiers started thinking, not a single soldier would remain in my army.
—FREDERICK II
The wild instinct of military murder has developed in humanity over the course of thousands of years, and has become rooted in our brains. We must hope that our society will be able to rid itself of this terrible crime.
With time I understand the army code that dictates that a sergeant is always right when he addresses a soldier, that a lieutenant is always right when he addresses a sergeant, and so on up to generals and marshals, even when a person says that two times two equals five. If you do not obey your superior, you are punished by death, or years in prison.
—EDWARD EKMAN
Wars can be stopped only if people are ready to be persecuted for not participating in them. This is the only way.
December 30
The understanding of the fraternity and equality of all people becomes more and more popular among mankind.
Do we understand our spiritual fraternity? Do we understand that we originated from one divine Father whose image we carry in ourselves and for whose perfection we strive? Have we accepted that there is the same divine life in all people, as well as in ourselves? And that this makes a natural and free bond among people?
—WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
We can love neither those whom we fear nor those who fear us.
—MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
Family and motherland are but two circles that are part of the wider circle that is humanity. Those who teach morality and who limit one’s duties only to family and country teach a selfishness which is dangerous for all of us.
The understanding of one’s unity with all of humanity comes from the understanding of the divine beginning in us all, and gives all our greatest good. True religion creates this understanding, and different prejudices interfere with it—prejudice of state, nation, and class.
December 31
The past does not exist. The future has not begun. The present is an infinitely small point in time in which the already nonexistent past meets the imminent future. At this point, which is timeless, a person’s real life exists.
“Time passes by!” we say. Time does not exist; only we move.
—After the TALMUD
Time is behind us, time is before us, but in the present there is no time.
I consist of spirit and body. Time affects the body, but the life of the spirit has no meaning either in the past or in the future. All its life is concentrated in the present.
—MARCUS AURELIUS
Divine spirit is eternal, it exists out of time. Limitless time and space are divided into small, limited parts to be used by limited beings.
—HENRI AMIEL
The soul is put into our body, so that it can understand the notion of date and time. It contemplates this fact and calls it “nature.”
—BLAISE PASCAL
Time does not exist. There is only a small and infinite present, and it is only in this present that our life occurs. Therefore, a person should concentrate all his spiritual force only on this present.
THE NAME INDEX
WITH BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF MAJOR PERSONALITIES
ACHINSKY, DANIEL, October 28.
ALEMBERT, JEAN LE ROND D’ (1717-1783), French writer, encyclopedist, and mathematician, February 15.
AMIEL, HENRI FRÉDÉRIC (1821-1881), professor of philosophy at the University of Geneva, the author of the book Journal Intime, January 13; February 11; March 2; May 10, 15, 16, 22, 26; July 2, 8; August 9, 20, 29; September 8, 30; October 8, 14; December 14, 20, 22, 24, 31.
ARABIC PROVERB (WISDOM), February 26; March 24; October 1.
ARKHANGELSKY, ALEXANDR (1857-1906), journalist and Tolstoy’s follower, February 1; July 14.
ARNOLD, MATTHEW (1822-1888), British poet, critic, and historian of literature, February 22.
AUGUSTINE, SAINT (354-430), Christian scholar, the greatest of the Latin Church fathers, November 19.
AURELIUS, MARCUS (121-180), Roman emperor and philosopher, February 1, 4, 19; March 27, 30; April 2, 4; May 12, 20; June 3, 23, 24; August 5, 16, 26; September 18, 19, 26; October 22, 23, 28; November 18, 27; December 7, 17, 31.
BACON, FRANCIS (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman, June 6.
BENTHAM, JEREMY (1748-1832), English lawyer and philosopher, February 3; November 5.
BISMARCK, OTTO EDWARD LEOPOLD VON (1814-1898), German statesman who contributed to the unification of Germany, July 28.
BLACK HAWK (1767-1838), American Indian chief (Sac), November 12.
BOOK OF DIVINE THOUGHTS, January 4, 7; March 3; May 25; October 4; November 24, 29.
BROWN, EDWARD (1811-1891), British religious writer, bishop, August 30, September 27.
BUDDHA (563[?]-[?]483 B.C.), originally Siddharta Gautama, Indian mystic and founder of Buddhism, June 11.
BUDDHIST WISDOM, February 16; May 6, 12, 23; June 6; September 14; November 5, 24, 27; December 10, 15.
CARLYLE, THOMAS (1795-1881), British historian and journalist, January 21; February 29; April 14, 28; July 16; August 4; November 12, 20,22.
CARPENTER, EDWARD (1844-1929), British writer, August 4.
CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY(1780-1842), American clergyman and writer, January 10, 15; February 10; April 10; June 15, 26; July 18, 29; August 23, 30; October 27; November 8, December 30.
CHERTKOV, VLADIMIR (1854-1936), Tolstoy’s friend and publisher, November 22.
CHINESE PROVERB (WISDOM), January 3, 4, 13, 17; February 14, 27; March 13, 14, 28; April 25; May 13, 15, 17, 19; June 3, 7; July 5, 16, 20; August 1, 27; September 4, 13; October 19, 21; November 1, 4, 6, 13, 29.
CHRYSOSTOM, SAINT JOHN (347-407), Christian scholar, patriarch of Constantinople, January 26; March 17; June 9; September 12; November 15.
CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS (106-48 B.C), Roman philosopher and orator, January 30; February 12, 16; April 3, 24; May 4, 19; June 23; July 3, 19, 25; August 2; September 12; October 6, 9; November 7, 18; December 8, 23, 30.
COMB, ABRAHAM (1785-1834), British philosopher, August 14.
COMTE, AUGUSTE (1798-1857), French philosopher, March 20.
CONFUCIUS (551-479 B.C.), Chinese philosopher, January 11,29; February 7, 14; April 2; May 3, 15, 20; June 14, 21; July 24; August 17; September 4, 13, 21; October 5; December 8.