A Calendar of Wisdom

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.

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 harmful: 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.

October 12

Any departure from accepted traditions and customs requires a large and serious effort, but true understanding of new things always requires such an effort.

—LUCY MALORY

A society says to a man: “Think as we think, believe in what we believe, eat and drink what we eat and drink, and dress in the way we dress.”

You should behave as you think is good, but not following the advice of the crowd.

—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

It is bad to irritate people by stepping back from their customs and traditions, but it is even worse to deny the requirements of your conscience and intellect by following the customs of the crowd.

October 13

A state system, no matter what kind of state system it is, functions at a far remove from the requirements of Christianity.

In those countries where wise people are in power, their subjects do not notice the existence of their rulers.

—LAO-TZU

State violence cannot be destroyed by decree, only by truth and love. Maybe state violence was necessary for previous generations; maybe it is even necessary now, but people should conceive of a kind of future government in which violence will not be necessary.

You should live in such a way that violence is not necessary for you.

October 14

People are taught to speak, but their major concern should be how to keep silent.

If your tongue speaks good, there is nothing better in the world; if your tongue speaks evil, there is nothing worse.

—The TALMUD

I have spent all my life amongst wise people, and I found nothing better than silence in this world. If a word costs one coin, then silence costs two. Silence suits clever people, and it suits wise people even more.

—The TALMUD

Let your tongue become accustomed to the words “I do not know.”

—EASTERN WISDOM

Keep silent. Give rest to your tongue more often than to your hands. You will never regret that you have kept silently but you will often regret that you spoke too much.

October 15

Your chief task in life is the care of your soul You should care for your soul and work to improve it, and you can improve it only with love.

The meaning of life lies in two major areas: your personal perfection and service to other people. You can serve while you are moving toward perfection, and you can move toward perfection by serving people.

When I talk of moving toward perfection, I mean moving from a material to a spiritual plane, a plane of goodness, without time or death.

Only one step lies between a five-year-old child and a man of my age. Between a newborn baby and a five-year-old child lies a huge distance. Between a fetus and a newborn baby lies an abyss; and between nonexistence and a fetus lies not only an abyss, but a gulf that surpasses comprehension.

From childhood to death, humans, no matter their lot in life, should strive to grow to get closer and closer to the spiritual life. Strive to learn what God wants, and your life will become filled with freedom and joy.

October 16

God is in all of us, and it is possible for all of us to find and understand him there.

To know yourself is to discover the good that lies within.

God is close to us he is with us: the divine spirit is inside of us. If he were not, the power to be good would be beyond our reach. A person cannot be good without God.

—LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA

If you are going through a hard time, work harder to understand God; as soon as you understand Him, all difficult things will become easy, and you will feel love and joy.

If a person does not feel a divine force within himself, this does not mean that a divine force does not exist in him, but that he has not yet learned how to recognize it.

October 17

If there are people and there is God, then there are relationships between God and people. These relationships are changing with time, and mankind’s religious conceptions are constantly evolving, constantly improving, becoming more clear and easily understood with the passage of time.

Religious conscience of mankind is not rigid, it is changing all the time, becoming purer and clearer.

God is spirit and part of this spirit lives inside me and gives sense to my life.

There is much good to be learned from the Koran, from the Buddhists, from Confucius, from the Old Testament, from the Indian Upanishads, and from the New Testament. But the closer a religious thinker or philosopher is to us in time, the more he can help us draw from these teachings in the light of our present-day lives.

October 18

The past no longer exists; the future has not yet come; there is only the present. And only in the present can the divine nature of the free human soul be manifested.

Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

—JOHN 12:35

Everyone knows that our habits are improved and strengthened through their exercise. In order to be a good walker, you need to walk a lot; in order to be a strong runner, you need to run frequently; in order to be a perceptive reader, you ought to read as much as you can. The same is true of your soul: if you become angry, you must know that you not only perform evil, but you also create an evil habit, and you increase your potential for further evil.

—EPICTETUS

If you want to do a good deed, do it now. The time will pass, and you will not have the chance again.

October 19

The meaning of life is revealed to those who are ready to accept the things which will be revealed. And it is he who has already decided that he will accept the truth as it is, and not the truth itself, which will change the way of life he has been accustomed to.

Who am I? What should I do? What should I believe in and what should I hope for?

All of philosophy is in these questions, said the philosopher Lichtenberg. But among all these questions, the most important one is that which is in the middle. If a person knows what he should do, he will understand everything which he should know.

Woe to the people who look without understanding, who do not know their foundations.

—After the TALMUD

Every bird always knows where to make her nest. And if she knows how and where to make her nest, this means that she knows her purpose in life. And why does man, who is the wisest among all creatures, not know that which any bird knows, that is, his purpose in life?

—CHINESE WISDOM

The real meaning of life is not possible to embrace, if you are looking for the universal meaning of life. And at the same time it is so simple that it can be explained to fools and to infants when what to know is what you should do as an individual.

October 20

The life of man is filled with intellect only when the fulfillment of your duty is understood. We all know for sure that death waits for us. We do not know when, just as we do not know where we came from.

—HENRY GEORGE

Virtue is a service which a person should do for himself. If there were no heaven and no God who ruled this world, even then virtue would be the necessary law of life.

—INDIAN WISDOM

When you approach a man, you should think not about how he can help you, but how you might serve and help him.

We have the necessary law for all our actions, and this law cannot be restricted by any power. The fulfillment of this law is possible even in prison, and under the threat of tortures and death.

Look for a kind life which is in harmony with the will of God, and then you will fulfill the duty of your life.

October 21

In the same way as the storm troubles and muddies the waters, so too passions trouble our souls and interfere with our understanding of this life.

People with great and wonderful souls are always quiet and happy. Those people who do not have spirituality are always unhappy.

—CHINESE PROVERB

Do not be concerned too much with what will happen. Everything which happens will be good and useful for you.

—EPICTETUS

A person will understand his place in the world only when he understands his soul.

—CHINESE WISDOM

Real power is not in momentary desires, but in complete calmness.

Complete outer calmness is impossible. But when there are some calm periods, we should appreciate them and make them last longer. This is the time when useful thoughts appear; they become stronger and guide us in life.

October 22

Make sure that you do not gossip about your brother.

Time passes, but the words which you say will remain.

To stop your tongue from talking too much is a sign of great virtue.

The human soul, not by itself, but by some power, is pushed closer and closer to truth and goodness, and the better we understand this, the more humble we will be.

—MARCUS AURELIUS

If you think that it is necessary to judge your neighbor, then say this looking directly into his eyes, and say this in such a way that you do not create animosity.

October 23

Conscience is the understanding of the divine beginning which lives in us.

Conscience is the real judge between good and bad, conscience is what makes a person similar to God, and conscience is the greatest advantage of human nature. Without conscience there would be nothing that would raise us above the animals, and people would move from one lie to another.

—JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

The purpose of your life is not to do as the majority does, but to live according to the inner law which you understand in yourself. Do not act against your conscience or against truth. Live like this, and you will fulfill the task of your life.

—MARCUS AURELIUS

You cannot fight with the requirements of conscience. These are the rules of God, and it is better to submit to them.

October 24

If the foundations of our life were not of the same nature in all of us, then we would not be able to explain to each other those feelings of compassion which we really experience.

Compassion expressed in response to rage is the same as water for fire. When you are in a rage, try to feel compassion for the other person, and then your rage will disappear.

—After ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

There are many people who are more unhappy than you. This message cannot be a roof under which you may live, but it will be enough of a roof under which you may hide from storms.

You hide from your misfortunes. But if you knew what other people suffered, then you would not complain about your own.

—SOLON

Real compassion begins only when you put yourself in the place of those who suffer, and you feel real suffering.

October 25

A person can understand his purpose in the same way as he understands his dignity. Only a religious person can understand his purpose in life.

A king asked a holy man, “Do you remember about me?” The holy man answered, “Yes, I think about you, when I forget about God.”

—MUSLIH-UD-DIN SAADI

We fulfill the law of God when we feel the lives of others as our own life.

—GIUSEPPE MAZZINI

The freedom of a person is a great thing, and even the freedom of a whole nation begins from the freedom of a single individual.

You should respect freedom in yourself, and in your neighbor, and in all people.

Only he who understands himself as a spiritual being can understand the spiritual dignity of other people. Such a person will not lower himself with any act which is not worthy of a spiritual person.

October 26

For the moral, spiritual life, the importance of things is measured not by their material value, but by their level of goodness.

The majority of people want to do something unusual and difficult in order to improve their lives, but they would be better to purify their wishes, and improve their inner selves.

The second things are much more important than the first.

—After FRANÇOIS FÉNELON

A person understands himself not through thoughts, but with actions. It is only through making an effort that a person will understand his worth.

—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

To move yourself from the material to the spiritual means to do only spiritual things. My material body pulls my inner self to itself, but I try to separate my spiritual self from the material body. Though I use my body, I live within my spiritual life, which is my real life.

October 27

Real religion cannot be opposed to intellect.

Do not believe that in religion you cannot trust your intellect. The force of our intellect must support the foundations of every real faith.

—WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING

If God, the object of our faith, is higher than our understanding, and if you do not understand Him, it does not mean that you should not use your intellect trying to understand Him.

—FYODOR STRAKHOV

While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.

—JOHN 12:36

In order to understand the truth, you should not suppress your intellect. On the contrary, you should purify your intellect, exercise it, and intellectually try and test everything which we can possibly put to the test.

October 28

Pain is the necessary condition of our body, and suffering is the necessary condition of our spiritual life, from birth to death.

—MARCUS AURELIUS

You should welcome everything which happens to you from birth to death, because the existence and the purpose of the world is in these cases.

—MARCUS AURELIUS

Only in the storm can you see the art of the real sailor; only on the battlefield can you see the bravery of a soldier. The courage of a simple person can be seen in how he copes with the difficult and dangerous situations in life.

—DANIEL ACHINSKY

Those things which we call happiness and those which we call unhappiness are useful for us, especially when we see them as opportunities to try ourselves.

The legend about the wandering Jew who was suffering the punishment of eternal life is very true. In the same way, there is a legend about a man who was punished by being given a life without any suffering.

October 29

There is nothing more important than an example. It leads us to do good deeds which would be impossible without this example. Therefore, if we use dissipated or passionate or cruel people as examples, it destroys our soul. The contrary is also true.

Those who do not think independently are under the influence of somebody else who thinks for them. If you give your thoughts to somebody else, it is a more shameful slavery than if you give your body to someone to possess.

If you desire to follow someone as an example, as many other people do, first stop and think whether it is worthwhile to follow this general example.

Those who are not afraid of truly terrible things follow false examples and those people follow the path to destruction.

—DHAMMAPADA, a book of BUDDHIST WISDOM

Evil influence can be destroyed only by good influence. And the way to receive a good influence is to have a good life.

October 30

A sense of self-importance so high that it surpasses all limits is a mental illness called

mania grandiosa

.

People think that self-sacrifice violates your freedom. Those people do not know that sacrifice gives us complete freedom, and frees us from ourselves, from the slavery of our dissipation.

Our passions are the most terrible tyrants, and we can be the slave of them. Only self-sacrifice can free us from this slavery.

If you teach others how many insects exist in this world, or when you look at the spots on the sun, or when you write an opera or a novel—we do these things for different purposes. But to teach people goodness is done only for the purpose of self-sacrifice, service to others, and you cannot express this teaching without self-sacrifice. Christ gave his life on the cross for a great purpose, not in vain. And a sacrifice or suffering is never in vain, and it will triumph over everything.

October 31

Nothing can interfere with the growth of truth in the world: nothing except the wish to save old prejudices.

People say that God created mankind after his image. This means that man created God after his image.

—GEORGE LICHTENBERG

If we believe in the things we were taught, there is goodness and evil at the same time.

—HENRY GEORGE

Humanity slowly but ceaselessly moves forward to the better and better understanding of the meaning of this life.

Among the most terrible lies of all is to teach false faith to children.

Disrespect for traditions has not caused even one thousandth part of the great evil which was caused by the old prejudices, traditions, customs, and institutions which should not exist at present.