A Calendar of Wisdom: New Translation (Alma Classics)

It is better to know a little about the rules of living than to learn all kinds of useless scientific subjects. Knowledge of useless scientific subjects will only subject you to the temptation of pride and will prevent you from understanding the necessary rules of living. Tolstoy

It is the highest form of impudence for one group of people to lay down a religious law that has not been discussed by others and that has to be accepted by other people on trust. Tolstoy

All discussions about art are merely idle. Those people who understand something about art know that every form of art speaks in its own special voice and that to speak about art in words is pointless. This is why those who speak about art more than anything else are not able to feel it or to understand it. Tolstoy

Whenever you have done something wrong, however minor, never think it is something trivial. It is wrong to say to yourself “I’ve done that now, and I won’t do it again”, for you will find it difficult to refrain from repeating doing something you have already done once. And if you have done some good deed, never say to yourself “that’s a tiny matte

The sage Socrates himself refrained from anything superfluous – including eating – not in order to satisfy his hunger, but for the sake of the taste of the food he had been given, and he tried to persuade his followers to do likewise. He used to say that, with regard to both the body and the soul, much harm could come from too much food and drink,

In order to truly believe, you have to cultivate faith. And in order to cultivate faith, you need to act accordingly. The essence of acts of faith lies not in great deeds, but in trivial, insignificant acts performed exclusively for God. Pascal said that we all have to “die alone”. And the only true life is the life you live alone, before God rathe

All a man needs to do is to say that although he knows what he’s doing is wrong, he has no choice but to do it – all he needs to do is to say that to himself, and he will carry out the most appalling acts, not merely thinking that he is able to carry out such acts, but even taking pride in doing so. One such appalling act is war. Tolstoy

If God treats all people as equal, making no distinction between the good and the bad (and he knows people’s hearts), how can we, not knowing what is going on inside people’s hearts, decide about them from their appearance alone – and on this basis love some but dislike others? Tolstoy

There is no need to seek heroic tasks. If you simply do those things that are demanded of you now, in the position you find yourselves in at this moment, to the best of our ability and in a Christian way, then your life will be perfectly full, and you will have no need to seek to do anything heroic. Tolstoy